climate Archives

Comparison of ACOS and Diffusion with and without bias correction/finetuning for the holdout year of 2022. We compare the point estimate of each method (top row) by evaluating the RMSE. We compare the Gaussian uncertainties of each method (bottom row) by evaluating the Miscalibration Area. -- cs.LG

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Conditional Diffusion-Based Retrieval of Atmospheric CO2 From Earth Observing Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingMay 1, 2025May 1, 2025

Satellite-based estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG) properties from observations of reflected solar spectra are integral for understanding and monitoring complex terrestrial systems and their impact on the carbon cycle due […]

Mosaic of the Valles Marineris hemisphere of Mars projected into point perspective, a view similar to that which one would see from a spacecraft. The distance is 2500 kilometers from the surface of the planet, with the scale being .6km/pixel. The mosaic is composed of 102 Viking Orbiter images of Mars. The center of the scene (lat -8, long 78) shows the entire Valles Marineris canyon system, over 2000 kilometers long and up to 8 kilometers deep, extending form Noctis Labyrinthus, the arcuate system of graben to the west, to the chaotic terrain to the east. Many huge ancient river channels begin from the chaotic terrain from north-central canyons and run north. The three Tharsis volcanoes (dark red spots), each about 25 kilometers high, are visible to the west. South of Valles Marineris is very ancient terrain covered by many impact craters. Credit: NASA

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

New Study on Why Mars Is Red Supports Potentially Habitable Past

by Keith CowingApril 6, 2025April 6, 2025

A new international study partially funded by NASA on how Mars got its iconic red color adds to evidence that Mars had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate […]

Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano erupts on 14 January 2022 in this still from a video posted to social media. Credit: Tonga Geological Services

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Extinction events, Impact events, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Press Release

Hunga Volcano Eruption Cooled, Rather Than Warmed, Earth’s Southern Hemisphere

by Keith CowingApril 3, 2025April 3, 2025

When Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai, an underwater volcano near Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean, erupted in 2022, scientists expected that it would spew enough water vapor into the stratosphere to […]

Permian–Triassic paleogeography -- Frontiers in Earth Science

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Gaia - Planetary Perspectives, Habitable Zones, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Status Report

Climate Crisis That Accompanied The Great Dying Mass Extinction Event

by Keith CowingMarch 24, 2025

The mass extinction that ended the Permian geological epoch, 252 million years ago, wiped out most animals living on Earth. Huge volcanoes erupted, releasing 100,000 billion metric tons of carbon […]

Zonal mean zonal wind near (a) 𝐿𝑠 = 191∘ and (b) 𝐿𝑠 = 261∘ -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Icy Worlds, Status Report, Titan, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Role of Planetary-Scale Waves on the Stratospheric Superrotation in Titan’s Atmosphere

by Keith CowingMarch 21, 2025March 21, 2025

We analyze simulation results from the TitanWRF global circulation model to understand the mechanisms that maintain the equatorial superrotation in Titan’s stratosphere.

The thermal impact of dust storms on Mars is significant, and is thought to play a similar role to that of water vapor in Earth’s atmosphere. Credit: NASA

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Mars, Press Release

How’s The Weather On Mars?

by Keith CowingMarch 7, 2025

A new study by researchers including those at the University of Tokyo revealed that atmospheric gravity waves play a crucial role in driving latitudinal air currents on Mars, particularly at […]

A hypothetical picture of Mars 3.6 billion years ago, when an ocean may have covered nearly half the planet. The blue areas show the depth of the ocean filled to the shoreline level of the ancient, now-gone sea, dubbed Deuteronilus. The orange star represents the landing site of the Chinese rover Zhurong. The yellow star is the site of NASA's Perseverance rover, which landed a few months before Zhurong. Credit Robert Citron

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Robotics/Rovers/UAVs, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Ancient Beaches Testify To A Long-ago Ocean On Mars

by Keith CowingMarch 3, 2025March 3, 2025

A Chinese rover that landed on Mars in 2021 detected evidence of underground beach deposits in an area thought to have once been the site of an ancient sea, providing […]

On its own, Earth would shift toward another ice age in about 10,000 years, scientists say. But humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions may have radically shifted the climates trajectory. CreditMatt Perko, UC Santa Barbara

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Matching Earth’s Ice Age Cycles With Orbital Shifts

by Keith CowingMarch 1, 2025March 1, 2025

Beginning around 2.5 million years ago, Earth entered an era marked by successive ice ages and interglacial periods, emerging from the last glaciation around 11,700 years ago. A new analysis […]

Cartoon depiction of the sulfur-cycle in different planetary regimes. In the Earthlike case (A), atmospheric SO2 is scrubbed from the atmosphere by wet deposition (19). In the Venus-like case with high-UV irradiation (B), for example irradiation by the Sun, SO2 can be abundant in the deep atmosphere, however in the upper atmosphere SO2 is efficiently catalysed into H2SO4 by UV photons and subsequent reaction with H2O (80). In the Venus-like case with low-UV irradiation (C), such as irradiation by a low-UV M-dwarf, SO2 can survive in the upper atmosphere (20), potentially enabling SO2 to be identified in spectroscopic observation and thereby revealing the lack of a surface water ocean. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Tracing the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone with Sulfur Chemistry

by Keith CowingJanuary 31, 2025January 31, 2025

The circumstellar liquid-water habitable zone guides our search for potentially inhabited exoplanets, but remains observationally untested. We show that the inner edge of the habitable zone can now be mapped […]