In this month’s Geosciences Column, Amanda Gläser-Bligh writes about SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellites and how they can be used to map glacier lakes and mitigate related flood hazards. Glaciers are a natural storage system and provide a perennial source of fresh water to the surrounding low-lying areas, which can be used for drinking water, irrigation, or even hydroelectricity. But when gl ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: A teaching game for water managers
In this month’s Geosciences Column, Wayne Deeker tells us about a new game – first presented in EGU’s Hydrology and Earth System Sciences – that aims to teach how to best share water resources. With shrinking glaciers, depleted groundwater stores, and rising populations, water resources have never been under such pressure, and worse is yet to come. The resulting conflicts can get ugly and bring hi ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: Don’t blame bacteria – nitrous oxide production in the ocean
In this month’s Geosciences Column, Celso Gomes highlights a recent result published in EGU’s Biogeosciences on the role of a particular single-celled microorganism in the production of nitrous oxide in the ocean. About 30% of atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), a greenhouse gas, is a product of the ocean. Therefore, by studying the mechanisms behind the oceanic production of this gas, sc ...[Read More]
Geosciences Column: For permafrost, (sediment) size does matter
In this month’s Geosciences Column, David Bressan – now a regular EGU contributor – highlights a recent result published in The Cryosphere with implications on the occurrence and preservation of alpine permafrost. The last 150 years saw an increase of 0.8°C in the Earth’s mean global temperature. In mountain ranges like the European Alps, however, this rising trend is even more pronoun ...[Read More]