Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features wildfire smoke across a large portion of Alaska in early July, 2022. The most intense fires were located in the central and southern parts of the state, but strong winds had carried smoke far north as well.&nbsp;



"Alaskan summers have long been described as brief and mild. In the early summer of 2022, the word that stood out was smoky," reports NASA.



"In a scene that was repeated several times in June and early July, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NASA-NOAA Suomi NPP satellite observed smoke spreading across large portions of Alaska."



According to NASA, one particularly smoky fire in southwest Alaska hampered visibility on the Seward Peninsula, more than 400 miles to the northwest.&nbsp;



The influx of smoke in Nome led to extremely high particulate matter readings, with an AQI above 700 at times, says Rick Thoman, a climatologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.



"Alaska surpassed 2 million acres (8000 square kilometers) burned on July 2, 2022, matching the earliest date for the milestone in the past 20 years," reports NASA.



"On July 5, 2022, the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center reported 210 active fires in the state. Forty-two were large fires with firefighters working on them, according to the National Interagency Fire Center."



The image was created by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Alaska is having a very smoky summer season

Today's Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features wildfire smoke across a large portion of Alaska in early July, 2022. The most intense fires were located in the central and southern parts of the state, but strong winds had carried smoke far north as well.&nbsp; "Alaskan summers have long been described as brief and mild. In the early summer of 2022, the word that stood out was smoky," reports NASA. "In a scene that was repeated several times in June and...

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features Saguaro National Park, which was founded to protect the saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea).



Growing up to 60 feet in height, the saguaro is the largest cactus in the United States, and an icon of the American West. It has spiny, branching arms.



The saguaro grows exclusively in the Sonoran Desert across southern Arizona, southeast California, and western Sonora, Mexico. State laws protect the cactus from harvesting or destruction.



The national park covers about 145 square miles of the Sonoran Desert around Tucson, Arizona. The park is split into two sections: the eastern Rincon Mountain District and the western Tucson Mountain District.



Today's photograph is focused on the western district, which was once the site of 137 mining sites. Copper, lead, silver, and molybdenum were mined here from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s.&nbsp;



The saguaro cactus grows very slowly. Given the right conditions, these plants can live to be 200 years old.&nbsp;



According to NASA, the saguaro is particularly sensitive to temperature range and water abundance, and highly variable or extreme weather can stress the plants and limit reproduction.&nbsp;



Climate monitoring in Saguaro National Park shows that the region is receiving less rainfall in the winter, but more in the summer. With an abundant amount of rainfall, the cacti can weigh up to 4,800 pounds. However, recent drought conditions threaten the survival of young saguaros.



Experts will continue to seek out improved methods for monitoring the saguaro cactus populations. According to NASA, some recent studies have used such machine learning to survey and map populations of saguaro, which cast shadows that can be identified in imagery.&nbsp;



The natural color image was captured on September 21, 2021, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Saguaro National Park in the Sonoran Desert

Today's Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features...

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features the Bezymianny Volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East. The volcano, which recently erupted on May 28, 2022, peaks at an elevation of 9,455 feet.&nbsp;



"The name, which translates to 'no name,' was likely bestowed because the stratovolcano had been quiet for a thousand years at the time it was named," reports NASA. "Until late 1955, when it awakened with a cataclysmic eruption, the volcano was considered extinct. Bezymianny has been erupting intermittently ever since."



According to NASA, an eruption of Bezymianny in 1955 was very similar to the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, with a lateral flank explosion and summit collapse. During the recent eruption, observers at the Kamchatka Volcanological Station recorded a strong explosion and large ash plume.



"The ejected ash ultimately reached an altitude of 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) and traveled east-southeast for more than 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles). As the plume drifted over the peninsula toward the Pacific Ocean, it deposited a layer of ash on the snow-covered ground," says NASA.



"The streak of ash is visible in this image, acquired on May 29, 2022, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8. The image is overlain on topography data from the NASA Digital Elevation Model. Bezymianny is seen next to two larger neighboring volcanoes, Kamen and Klyuchevskaya."



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Bezymianny Volcano in Kamchatka, Russia

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features an astronaut view of the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. The darker-colored <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crops-have-a-drought-memory-that-prepares-them-for-tough-times/">crops</a> stand out against the lighter sand dunes.&nbsp;



"This area of intensively farmed soil occupies fan-shaped landscape features known as the Murgab and Tedzhen fans," reports NASA.



"Agricultural fields occupy more than 120 miles of the large Murgab fan. The cityscape of Mary stands amidst the fields."



The water that supports the people and crops of Karakum Desert comes from the Kopet Dagh Mountains



"The prominent Murgab River carries water down from the mountains to the fan, and a network of smaller canals lead it far into the desert," reports NASA. "The neighboring irrigated Tedzhen fan is also fed by water from the Kopet Dagh."



A second source of water for the desert is the Karakum Canal, which is one of the largest in the world and is navigable over much of its length, according to NASA. The canal draws water from the Amu Darya river.



A solar panel on the Cygnus NG-15 resupply vehicle appears in the foreground along the bottom of the image. Near the top, scattered puffy clouds cast dark shadows on the desert.



The photo was captured on June 13 by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features what appears to be a massive hole in the clouds over the ocean south of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Located between 40 and 60 degrees south of the equator, mariners refer to these turbulent <a href="https://www.earth.com/image/churning-waters-in-the-english-channel/">waters</a> as the “Roaring Forties” and “Furious Fifties.”&nbsp;



Gary Partyka is an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. To gain a better understanding of the phenomenon observed in the photograph, he analyzed sea level pressure maps and other data from a NASA weather model called the GEOS Forward Processing system.



“There are actually a few things coming together to make it appear like one connected feature,” said Partyka. “It looks like there was a frontal weather system zipping by from west-to-east between 50-60 degrees south latitude."&nbsp;



"At the same time, a deck of more stationary, low clouds closer to the tip of Africa was being eroded by a high-pressure region with sinking air."&nbsp;



“The sinking air produced a semi-circle ring of clouds between 45-50 degrees south. When both of these phenomena lined up in longitude, it gave the appearance of a giant hole in the clouds.”



According to Abdullah Fahad, a NASA atmospheric scientist, winds generally blow outward and away from high-pressure systems, which are typically cooler and denser than surrounding air masses and pull air downward in a spiraling motion.



“This is a really interesting case,” said Fahad. “Keep in mind this is happening in the Southern Hemisphere’s ‘storm tracks’ region, which has regular cyclonic activity, low atmospheric pressures, and high westerly wind speeds most of the time. Seeing a high-pressure system and an anticyclone with the opposite circulation is actually an anomaly for this area.”



“One of the giveaways for me that this isn’t one circular cloud feature is that I can tell that the frontal clouds are at a higher altitude than the deck of low clouds being eroded to the north by looking beyond natural-color imagery,” said Partyka. “MODIS just happened to get a very fortuitous pass when both lined up at the right time.”



The photo was captured on April 3, 2022 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite.&nbsp;



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Clouds over stormy seas in South Africa

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features south-central and southwest Alaska, where an unusually active fire season continues.&nbsp;



"On June 4-5, 2022, thunderstorms moved across, delivering nearly 5,000 lightning strikes and igniting dozens of wildfires," says NASA. "As of June 14, 2022, there were 85 active fires burning across the state."



On May 31, a lightning strike ignited a fire in the Yukon Delta, the East Fork fire, which has now become the largest tundra fire on record.



"Northerly winds drove the East Fork fire within about 3.5 miles (6 kilometers) of the village of St. Mary’s," reports NASA. "Although no mandatory evacuation orders were issued, residents of St. Mary’s, and the nearby Yukon River villages of Mountain Village, Pitkas Point, and Pilot Station - all of which can be reached only by boat or plane - were encouraged to voluntarily relocate."



"On June 13, the wind shifted and allowed firefighters to attack the western edge of the fire. The firefighters were supported by 'scooper' aircraft dropping water, and by drones dropping ping-pong sized plastic balls that ignite to burn vegetation and create fire breaks."



By mid-June, 250 wildfires had already burned more than 770,000 acres, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center. This is more than the 30-year average of 600,000 acres burned over the course of the entire wildfire season.&nbsp;



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Unusually active fire season continues in Alaska

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features an astronaut view of Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain. Everest towers over the land at approximately 29,029 feet above sea level.



"This world-renowned summit sits on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau - a region sometimes called the 'Roof of the World.' Everest continues to rise skyward by approximately one centimeter per year due to the progressive uplift of the crust caused by the convergence of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates," reports NASA.



"Many glaciers flow down from the high snow-covered peaks on the plateau. As glaciers descend to lower and warmer elevations, much of the moving ice mass becomes obscured by rock debris (known as moraines) that accumulates on the top, sides, and terminus of the ice. As the glaciers melt, debris entrained in the ice can be deposited as sediments that geologists call glacial till."



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mount Everest: The world's highest peak

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features the Geiyo islands in the Seto Inland Sea, the body of water that separates the main islands of Japan.&nbsp;



"Whirlpools and other complex currents routinely roil Japan’s Seto Inland Sea. Strong tidal currents send water churning through a maze of channels and narrow straits surrounding thousands of islands in the shallow sea. The islands of the Geiyo archipelago are among them," reports NASA.



"On May 30, 2021, the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 captured this natural-color image of currents swirling around several of the Geiyo islands. The complex topography creates areas of choppy and smoother waters depending on the day’s weather and water flows. In this image, some water surfaces gleam with sunglint, an optical phenomenon that occurs when sunlight reflects off the surface of water at the same angle that a satellite sensor views it."



At one time, the only way to move between the Geiyo islands was by boat. Now, the Nishiseto Expressway has 55 bridges that connect nine of the islands, including Ōshima, Ōmishima, and Innoshima.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

The Geiyo islands in the Seto Inland Sea

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features vegetation throughout the Himalaya Mountains, where grasses and shrubs have been thriving in recent decades.&nbsp;



Karen Anderson, an eco-hydrologist at the University of Exeter, was exploring rock glaciers in the Himalayas in 2017 when she began to wonder how plant coverage has changed across the region.&nbsp;



According to NASA, research in other parts of the world has shown that changes in the type and expanse of vegetation can lead to changes in the flows and stores of water. Ultimately,&nbsp; the extent of vegetation in the Himalayas has an influence on the water supply for about one-fifth of the global population.



“There is such a lack of information about Himalayan ecology in this high-altitude zone, at least in western science, that we don’t really understand what the impacts of changing vegetation will be,” said Anderson. “Most of the scientific expeditions to the Himalaya have been to the glaciers, which have been an area of major concern as they retreat under climate change.”



The researchers focused their study on how plant life has changed in the Hindu Kush Himalaya over the span of 26 years.&nbsp;



To map the abundance of vegetation across the subnival zone from 1993 to 2018, the team used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, or NDVI, derived from Landsat satellites.



&nbsp;They span the mountainous area around Mount Everest and Dingboche, Nepal, a mountain village at an altitude of 4,410 meters (14,500 feet). Notice the&nbsp;



The experts found small but significant increases in vegetation during the study period. The biggest gains were located on steeper slopes at lower elevations, and on flatter areas at higher elevations.&nbsp;



“This work was the first step towards trying to explore the scale of this ecosystem, to describe how it is changing, and to discuss the likely implications,” said Anderson.



“As glaciers recede and plants expand with climate change, what will this mean for water security? I think this is a really important question and something that my research group is taking forward.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652486">Global Change Biology</a>.



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/ Joshua Stevens&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Vegetation is expanding across the Himalayas

Today's Image of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> features the Gulf of Maine, where warmer and salter waters have substantially reduced the productivity of phytoplankton - the center of the marine food web.



According to a recent study from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences, phytoplankton are now about 65 percent less productive in the Gulf of Maine than they were two decades ago,&nbsp;



"The Gulf of Maine helps fuel New England’s marine ecosystems and maritime economy," reports ESA. "Like plants on land, phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and use sunlight to grow via photosynthesis; they then become food for other organisms."&nbsp;



"Disruptions to the productivity of these microscopic organisms can lead to adverse effects on the region’s fisheries and the communities that depend on them."



A 2021 study revealed that the Gulf of Maine has been warming faster than most ocean basins. The researchers at Bigelow set out to investigate how this warming may have impacted phytoplankton.



“Phytoplankton are at the base of the marine food web on which all of life in the ocean depends, so it’s incredibly significant that its productivity has decreased,” said William Balch, a Bigelow Laboratory scientist who co-led the study. “A drop of 65 percent will undoubtedly have an effect on the carbon flowing through the marine food web, through phytoplankton-eating zooplankton, and up to fish and apex predators.”



“It’s all being driven by this gigantic windmill effect happening out in the North Atlantic, which is also changing the circulation coming into the Gulf of Maine. There used to be these inflows from the North Atlantic bringing water from the southward-flowing Labrador Current, making the gulf cooler and fresher, as opposed to warmer and saltier, which is where we are now.”



Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Phytoplankton are less productive in the Gulf of Maine

Geckos are known for their grippy feet which allow them to scale vertical surfaces. This superpower comes from millions of microscopic, hairlike structures on their toes. Scientists already understood gecko adhesion, but now have a clearer picture of the molecular structures that give the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pipeline-installation-boosts-diversity-of-seafloor-animals/">animal</a> its grip.&nbsp;



In a study from the <a href="https://www.nist.gov/">National Institute of Standards and Technology</a> (NIST), researchers analyzed the setae by zooming in using X-rays called a synchrotron. The experts discovered that the structures are coated in an ultra-thin film of water-repelling lipid molecules.



Setae are flexible and assume the microscopic contours of any surface the gecko is climbing. To release its foot, the gecko changes the angle of the setae, interrupting those forces and allowing the animal to take its next step.&nbsp;



These lipids are hydrophobic, meaning they repel water. “The lipids might function to push away any water beneath the spatulae, allowing them to make closer contact with the surface,” said study co-author Tobias Weidner of Aarhus University in Denmark. “This would help geckos maintain their grip on wet surfaces.”



The setae are made of a keratin protein similar to that found in human hair and fingernails which are extremely delicate. These keratin fibers are aligned in the direction of the setae, which might help them resist abrasion.



“You can imagine gecko boots that don’t slip on wet surfaces, or gecko gloves for holding tools that are wet,” said NIST physicist and study co-author Dan Fischer. “Or a vehicle that can run up walls, or a robot that can run along power lines and inspect them.”



The NIST synchrotron microscope can uniquely identify molecules on the surface of a three-dimensional object, measure their orientation and map their position. It is located at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, where the National Synchrotron Light Source II provides a source of high-energy X-rays for illumination.&nbsp;



This microscope is typically used on advanced industrial materials, including batteries, semiconductors, solar panels and medical devices. “But it is fascinating to figure out how gecko feet work, and we can learn a lot from nature when it comes to improving our own technology," said Fischer.&nbsp;



“A lot was already known about how setae work mechanically,” said study co-author Cherno Jaye. “Now we have a better understanding of how they work in terms of their molecular structure.”&nbsp;



Geckos have inspired many products like adhesive tapes. Understanding the molecular features of setae could further inspire inventors to mimic nature in design, a concept called biomimicry.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What gives gecko feet their grip?

Geckos are known for their grippy feet which allow them...

The word "hangry"’ is one of the most recent additions to the Oxford English Dictionary. It is defined as being irritable or bad tempered as a result of feeling <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/overfishing-is-wiping-out-large-bodied-fish-in-the-amazon/">hungry</a>, and has come into popular use in everyday language in the past few years. Despite this, the phenomenon has not been explored scientifically outside of laboratory conditions.



A new study published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a> is the first to investigate how hunger affects people’s emotions in their daily lives. The research, led by academics from <a href="https://aru.ac.uk/">Anglia Ruskin University</a> (ARU) in the UK and the Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences in Austria, involved 64 adult participants from central Europe who recorded their feelings and levels of hunger on a smartphone app, five times a day for 21 days. This meant that data collection took place in the participants’ homes and workplaces and reflected the link between hunger and emotional wellbeing in a natural environment.



“Many of us are aware that being hungry can influence our emotions, but surprisingly little scientific research has focused on being ‘hangry.' Ours is the first study to examine being ‘hangry’ outside of a lab. By following people in their day-to-day lives, we found that hunger was related to levels of anger, irritability, and pleasure," explained study lead author Professor <a href="https://aru.ac.uk/people/viren-swami">Viren Swami</a>.



The results of the research show that people who are hungry are more likely to feel angry and irritable, and also to experience less pleasure from their daily lives. The effects of hunger were substantial, even after the researchers took into account demographic factors such as age and sex, body mass index, dietary behavior and individual personality traits.&nbsp;



Being hungry explained 37 percent of the variance in irritability, 34 percent of the variance in anger and 38 percent of the variance in pleasure recorded by the participants. The research also found that the negative emotions – irritability, anger, and unpleasantness – are related to both day-to-day fluctuations in hunger, and to residual levels of hunger, measured using averages over the three-week period.



“Although our study doesn’t present ways to mitigate negative hunger-induced emotions, research suggests that being able to label an emotion can help people to regulate it, such as by recognizing that we feel angry simply because we are hungry,” explained Swami. “Therefore, greater awareness of being ‘hangry’ could reduce the likelihood that hunger results in negative emotions and behaviors in individuals.”



The field work for the study was carried out by Stefan Stieger, Professor of Psychology at Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences. Professor Stieger said: “This ‘hangry’ effect hasn’t been analyzed in detail, so we chose a field-based approach where participants were invited to respond to prompts to complete brief surveys on an app. They were sent these prompts five times a day at semi-random occasions over a three-week period.”



“This allowed us to generate intensive longitudinal data in a manner not possible with traditional laboratory-based research,” he added. “Although this approach requires a great deal of effort – not only for participants but also for researchers in designing such studies – the results provide a high degree of generalizability compared to laboratory studies, giving us a much more complete picture of how people experience the emotional outcomes of hunger in their everyday lives.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

People become "hangry" when their blood sugar is low

The word "hangry"’ is one of the most recent additions...

Wolves are iconic symbols of the wild; perhaps that is why some people love them while others despise them. A new study published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2022.881483/full">Frontiers in Conservation Science</a> demonstrates that the common reason for hating these animals is baseless and that loving them for utilitarian reasons is also unfounded.&nbsp;



“Based on the currently available evidence (not just from the United States) large predators, despite their ability to kill ungulates and livestock, will not eliminate deer, threaten people or lead to intolerable losses of livestock – the myths," explained the researchers. "On the other hand, large predators are unlikely to right all wrongs humans have inflicted on ecosystems – the wishful thinking.”



“I was as fooled like everybody else by the lovely stories that came out of Yellowstone saying, you bring wolves back, and you restore the rivers, and everything’s hunky-dory," said study co-author Professor Bernd Blossey of <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/">Cornell University</a>. "Once I started digging like an archaeologist into the literature, I found things that were not supportive of what I thought I knew.”



Professor Blossey explained that predators still have a place on the land, “The hopes and fears that we have on both sides of the debate – neither are realized. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t allow the wolves, the mountain lions, to return to their traditional landscapes – they’re a part of it.”



When the United States took wolves off the endangered species list, many individuals, organizations, and even state governments claimed that wolves needed to die to safeguard hunting and ranching operations. The study authors note that wolves and other predators do not threaten the most commonly hunted ungulates.&nbsp;



“What we do to landscapes, whether that’s forestry, agriculture or gardening, provide deer with a perfect landscape for them to live in. Hunters don’t remove enough deer, cars don’t remove enough," said Blossey. "Their populations exploded, because the living conditions were just absolutely wonderful.”



As far as ranching is concerned, several factors lead to the loss of livestock, including lighting strikes, extreme temperatures, disease, inadequate husbandry, and poor foraging options. Moreover, there are simple steps that ranchers can take to safeguard livestock from wild predators like wolves.



The researchers want us to stop placing wolves into shallow categories and appreciate them for what they are, beneficial members of the ecological community. “As long as people learn to live with and tolerate the new (old) neighbors, a careful but not fully conflict-free existence appears possible.”



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Wolves may not be heroes, but they're not villains either

Wolves are iconic symbols of the wild; perhaps that is...

The Colorado River has been a source of contention for many years, with many states wanting a piece of this precious water source. Now, Lake Mead, the largest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/european-farmland-is-a-huge-reservoir-of-microplastics/">reservoir</a> in the United States, is draining - and fast.&nbsp;



Considering that there has been a rise in temperatures and a decrease in rainfall, researchers at <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M University</a> set out to investigate the amount of water evaporating off the surface of artificial and natural lakes. This knowledge of evaporation loss may provide water managers with more insight and encourage more effective management.



Although water evaporation has been explored as something to consider when talking about climate change, there is not much information on its long-term trends and spatial distribution. The researchers created the global lake evaporation volume (GLEV) dataset to fill these gaps. This dataset utilizes modeling and remote sensing to measure evaporation in 1.42 million lakes and reservoirs worldwide.&nbsp;



The findings, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31125-6">Nature Communications</a>, were not encouraging. The experts determined that from 1985 to 2018 evaporation rate increased by 3.12 cubic kilometers per year.&nbsp;



Study first author Dr. Gang Zhao, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institute for Science, further explained the results and their importance.&nbsp;



"We found that the long-term lake evaporation is 1,500 plus or minus 150 cubic kilometers per year, which is 15.4% larger than previous estimates. This suggests that lake evaporation plays a larger role in the hydrological cycle than previously thought."



According to GLEV, reservoirs account for only 5% of the storage capacity and 10% of the surface area of lakes. Despite this, they account for 16% of total evaporation volume, meaning that the water lost to evaporation in reservoirs is equivalent to 20% of worldwide water consumption.&nbsp;



Dr. Huilin Gao, who led the study, pointed out that having this data to make projections is valuable. "This dataset helps the science community better understand the role that these water bodies play in Earth systems, from global weather forecasting, flood and drought modeling to Earth system modeling under climate change."



Texas A&amp;M researchers, along with the Desert Research Institute and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will be working on a NASA project to continue monitoring reservoir evaporation in the western U.S. In addition, they will expand their work with Texas reservoirs.



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By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Water evaporation from lakes is far greater than expected

The Colorado River has been a source of contention for...

A team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.nrel.gov/">National Renewable Energy Laboratory</a> (NREL) has recently assessed two promising new technologies for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Although they are still in the early stages of development, direct air <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carbon-capture-technology-could-greatly-reduce-emissions/">carbon capture</a> and sequestration (DAC) are considered essential to achieving a net-zero emissions economy by mid-century, and limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100.



“We will not hit our carbon-neutral targets by midcentury or our climate targets by the end of the century if we don’t push heavily for additional removal of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere,” said study corresponding author Patrick Lamers, a senior researcher at NREL.



The first DAC technology is solvent-based, relying upon a chemical solution that reacts with the carbon dioxide and forms potassium carbonate, which further reacts with calcium hydroxide to generate calcium carbonate. This substance is then collected, dried, and exposed to very high temperatures (about 900 degrees Celsius) to release the carbon dioxide, which is collected for further storage. The second technology is sorbent-based, employing a process that binds carbon dioxide to a silica part of an air contactor, which is heated with steam at approximately 100 degrees Celsius to release carbon dioxide that is afterwards cooled and dried.&nbsp;



In both cases, the carbon dioxide is compressed and transported through a pipeline to a geological reservoir through wells 1.8 miles deep. Pilot plants in Canada (the solvent method) and Iceland (the sorbent method) are already testing the processes. Due to the energy intensity of DAC, its environmental trade-offs are directly influenced by the energy inputs of the DAC plants. However, the large-scale deployment of these technologies will change the energy system load and create a feedback effect in which the economy-wide decarbonization will balance an offsetting technology (DAC) and sectoral mitigation efforts.



“The large-scale deployment of new technologies is likely going to create feedback effects within the system, and we need to preemptively assess these to avoid potential future, unintended consequences,” Dr. Lamers explained. “Our analysis shows the net carbon dioxide removal benefits of different direct air capture technologies and highlights environmental performance improvements for metrics such as human toxicity in a changing energy system.”



While the scientists do not specifically endorse a specific DAC technology, they stress the fact that their large-scale deployment is insufficient for mitigating climate change, if decarbonization targets will be relaxed. A simultaneous decarbonization of the electricity sector and improvements in DAC technology “are indispensable to avoid environmental problem-shifting” that may involve human toxicity or eutrophication impacts.&nbsp;



“Thus, if you look closely, our work really stresses the importance of the circular economy of energy materials and how it is a precursor to a truly sustainable future energy system heavily dependent on clean, renewable energy sources,” Dr. Lamar concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31146-1">Nature Communications</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

New tech can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

A team of scientists led by the National Renewable Energy...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the complex relationship between ocean and climate. ESA's Climate Change Initiative will help us understand how oceans influence the climate and how climate change is impacting the oceans.&nbsp;



"Earth’s oceans are huge heat stores, soaking up 93% of the excess heat from human activity over the past 70 years. Ocean currents redistribute heat around the planet, from the Equator to the poles. Where this ocean heat goes influences weather patterns and regional climate," explains ESA.



"As well as absorbing heat, oceans are a natural carbon sink, absorbing a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from human activity. This has led to the acidification of ocean water, threating marine life."



The amount of heat and carbon dioxide soaked up by the ocean depends on specific variables, including phytoplankton, temperatures, waves, salinity, and ice cover. Satellites can be used to measure these variables from space.



"From their unique vantage point, satellites provide key information for understanding the complexities of our planet and monitoring environmental issues," says ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ocean heat influences regional climate

[sendtonews key="uwirCufwYv-2012371-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esrf.fr/">European Synchrotron Radiation Facility</a> (ESRF) describes the details of a new study which reveals that dinosaurs died in the spring.



The researchers analyzed X-rays and carbon isotope records, which showed that fish died within 60 minutes after the Chicxulub meteoroid collided with the Earth.&nbsp;



For the analysis, the experts focused on the bones of the fish skeletons to examine seasonal growth rings.



“The retrieved growth rings not only captured the life histories of the fishes but also recorded the latest Cretaceous seasonality and thus the season in which the catastrophic extinction occurred,” explained study senior author Jeroen van der Lubbe.



“In all studied fishes, bone cell density and volumes can be traced over multiple years. These were on the rise but had not yet peaked during the year of death,” said study co-author Dennis Voeten.



In particular, the experts examined the diet of a paddlefish, which prefers to feed upon zooplankton. Throughout the year, the abundance of zooplankton fluctuates.&nbsp;



The study revealed that when the paddlefish died, zooplankton were approaching their summer climax.



“This temporary increase of ingested zooplankton enriched the skeleton of its predator with the heavier 13C carbon isotope relative to the lighter 12C carbon isotope,” explained Suzan Verdegaal-Warmerdam.



“The carbon isotope signal across the growth record of this unfortunate paddlefish confirms that the feeding season had not yet climaxed - death came in spring,” added study lead author Melanie During from Uppsala University.



Video Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New evidence reveals that dinosaurs died in the spring

[sendtonews key="SQpLfCDpSj-1840083-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. The archipelago consists of eight main islands including Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and La Palma, as well as many small islands and islets. The Canary Islands are the southernmost region of Spain in the Atlantic Ocean.&nbsp;



Tenerife is dominated by Mount Teide, the third largest volcano in the world. Teide National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) is located in the center of the island. Tourists flock to the beaches of Tenerife, which have sand that ranges in color from golden yellow to black.&nbsp;



"Owing to the island’s diverse topography and unique climatic factors, Tenerife has multiple microclimates, which means that the weather can vary drastically from one part of the island to the other," says ESA.



"Weather and climate are heavily influenced by the trade winds blowing from the northeast for most of the year, bringing humidity and precipitation to the north of the island, as well as to the northern slopes of Mount Teide."&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Tenerife in the Canary Islands

[sendtonews key="b3yIdenGyb-1803835-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...