Climate
City skylines influence cloud formation above them
Satellite data show that U.S. cities have more nighttime cloud cover than nearby countryside, and building height and density help explain why.
Earth
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
More Stories in Earth
- Plants
Tree tops sparkle with electricity during thunderstorms
Ultraviolet cameras captured faint electrical flashes from leaves and branches as storm charges built up in the atmosphere.
- Climate
Lakes are growing in Alaska. That’s not entirely a bad thing
Alaska’s glacial lakes are growing as glaciers retreat out of basins. These lakes will change desolate glacial rivers into thriving salmon habitat.
- Climate
Hundreds of studies have missed how much the oceans are rising
A widely used method to calculate sea level rise may have missed up to a century of change, so the risks could hit home for millions sooner than thought.
- Climate
Take it from the Olympics, slushy winter sports may be the new normal
Ice arenas and artificial snow now dominate the winter Olympics. Athletes there — and everywhere — may need to adjust how they train and perform.
- Animals
Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration
Suitable milkweed habitat in Mexico may shift south, fracturing existing migration routes and possibly pushing some butterflies to stay put.
- Earth
Metal pollution from a rocket reentry detected for the first time
Direct detection of lithium from a SpaceX rocket reentry offers new evidence that metal pollution from space debris could threaten the ozone layer.
- Climate
Halting irreversible changes to Antarctica depends on choices made today
Antarctic Peninsula projections show accelerating ice loss, warming oceans and global sea level impacts tied to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Climate
Snowball Earth might have had a dynamic climate and open seas
Sediments from Scotland hint that ocean-atmosphere interactions continued more than 600 million years ago despite widespread ice.
- Oceans
Evolution didn’t wait long after the dinosaurs died
New plankton arrived just a few millennia — maybe even decades — after the Chicxulub asteroid, forcing a rethink of evolution's catastrophe response speed.
