Easing the Soil's Temperature

Soil characteristics like organic matter content and moisture play a vital role in helping plants flourish. It turns out that soil temperature is just as important. Every plant needs a certain soil temperature to thrive. If the temperature changes too quickly, plants won’t do well. Their seeds won’t germinate or their roots will die.

JRC at COP23: A Cleaner, Greener Planet is Both Possible and Affordable

Limiting global warming below the critical 2C level set out in the Paris Agreement is both feasible and consistent with economic growth – and the knock-on improvements to air quality could already cover the costs of mitigation measures and save more than 300,000 lives annually by 2030.

NASA Sees the End of Tropical Depression 29W

Born from the remnants of Tropical Cyclone 28W, Tropical Depression 29W only lasted a few days before it began rapidly decaying. NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite found the disorganized storm weakening over the Malay Peninsula.

NASA's IMERG Adds Up Heavy Rainfall from Tropical Storm Damrey

Using a fleet of satellites, NASA calculated the heavy rainfall in Vietnam left by Typhoon Damrey at the beginning of November.

We Should Use Central Pressure Deficit, Not Wind Speed, To Predict Hurricane Damage

The system for categorizing hurricanes accounts only for peak wind speeds, but research published in Nature Communications explains why central pressure deficit is a better indicator of economic damage from storms in the United States.

Huge Carbon Sink Exists in Soil Minerals WSU Researcher Finds

A Washington State University researcher has discovered that vast amounts of carbon can be stored by soil minerals more than a foot below the surface. The finding could help offset the rising greenhouse-gas emissions helping warm the Earth’s climate.

Eyes on the Coast—Video Cameras Help Forecast Coastal Change

Coastal communities count on beaches for recreation and for protection from large waves, but beaches are vulnerable to threats such as erosion by storms and flooding. Whether beaches grow, shrink, or even disappear depends in part on what happens just offshore. How do features like shifting sandbars affect waves, currents, and the movement of sand from the beach to offshore and back?

Chemists develop method to quickly screen, identify fentanyl and other drugs of abuse

Researchers at McMaster University have developed a new drug screening technique that could lead to the rapid and accurate identification of fentanyl, as well as a vast number of other drugs of abuse, which up until now have been difficult to detect by traditional urine tests.

The method, outlined in the current edition of the journal Analytical Chemistry, addresses a serious public health emergency related to opioid addiction and unintentional overdose deaths: the lack of a reliable and inexpensive test that allows for comprehensive surveillance of synthetic drugs flooding the illegal market.

Hot News from the Antarctic Underground

Study Bolsters Theory of Heat Source Under West Antarctica

A new NASA study adds evidence that a geothermal heat source called a mantle plume lies deep below Antarctica's Marie Byrd Land, explaining some of the melting that creates lakes and rivers under the ice sheet.

NASA Tracking Atlantic's Tropical Storm Rina

NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite has been providing forecasters with imagery of Tropical Storm Rina as it moves north through the Central Atlantic Ocean.