A new phenomenon dubbed "ice piracy" is unfolding in the frigid wilderness of West Antarctica, where one glacier appears to be stealing ice from its neighbor. 



This unusual behavior - once believed to take hundreds or even thousands of years - has now been recorded happening in under two decades.



Scientists from the University of Leeds, working with international collaborators, have used high-resolution satellite data to reveal that a fast-moving glacier is redirecting ice flow away from its slower neighbor.



This surprising event is changing how scientists understand the dynamics of glaciers - and how such shifts may contribute to future sea-level rise. Their findings, now published in The Cryosphere, provide rare insight into these rapid changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fast-paced-shift-in-the-ice">Fast-paced shift in the ice</h2>



Between 2005 and 2022, researchers observed that seven <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ice-streams-move-unpredictably-due-to-hidden-quakes/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ice streams</a> in the Pope, Smith, and Kohler (PSK) region of West Antarctica sped up significantly. 



One glacier nearly doubled its speed - an 87% increase - at the point where it meets the ocean. 



Three other glaciers accelerated by 60% to 84%. By 2022, six of these streams were moving at more than 700 meters (0.4 miles) per year. That’s the equivalent of covering just over seven football fields in just one year.



This kind of acceleration, especially so close to the grounding line - the point where a glacier starts to float - is a warning sign. 



Grounding lines help track the stability of ice sheets. Changes in their position or speed suggest the system is out of balance and can influence how ice flows inland.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-slowing-glaciers-leads-to-ice-piracy">Slowing glaciers leads to ice piracy</h2>



But not every glacier followed the same pattern. The Kohler West glacier actually slowed down by 10% during the same time period. 



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Antarctica_ice-piracy_Glacier-velocity-change_2005-2022_ESA_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Antarctica_ice-piracy_Glacier-velocity-change_2005-2022_ESA_1s.webp" alt="The image depicts the average change in velocity of multiple glaciers flowing into the Crosson and Dotson Ice Shelves in West Antarctica from 2005 to 2022. Credit: ESA" class="wp-image-1969732"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The image depicts the average change in velocity of multiple glaciers flowing into the Crosson and Dotson Ice Shelves in West Antarctica from 2005 to 2022. Click image to enlarge. Credit: ESA</figcaption></figure>



This stood in stark contrast to nearby glaciers like Kohler East and Smith West, which sped up dramatically - by about 560 meters per year.



The slowdown puzzled scientists, until they looked at the ice flow patterns.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-kohler-west-and-kohler-east">Kohler West and Kohler East</h2>



“We think that the observed slowdown on Kohler West Glacier is due to the redirection of ice flow towards its neighbor - Kohler East," explained lead author Dr. Heather L. Selley from the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Leeds</a>.



"This is due to the large change in Kohler West’s surface slope, likely caused by the vastly different thinning rates on its neighboring <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-glaciers-flow-faster-during-the-summer-time/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">glaciers</a>.” 



She added that because Kohler East’s ice stream is flowing and thinning faster as it travels, it absorbs, or ‘steals’ ice from Kohler West. 



"This is effectively an act of ‘ice piracy’, where ice flow is redirected from one glacier to another, and the accelerating glacier is essentially ‘thieving’ ice from its slowing neighbor,” explained Selley.



“We didn’t know ice streams could ‘steal’ ice from each over such a short period, so this is a fascinating discovery. It’s unprecedented as we're seeing this from satellite data and it’s happening at a rate of under 18 years, whereas we’ve always thought it was this extremely long, slow process,” she added.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-watching-ice-piracy-from-space">Watching ice piracy from space</h2>



To track this shift, the research team used satellite images and a technique that follows the movement of surface features like crevasses and rifts. 



They also incorporated data on ice thinning from the European Space Agency’s <a href="https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/CryoSat" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CryoSat mission</a>.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Antarctica_ice-piracy_speed-direction_Crosson-Dotson-Ice-Shelves_2015-2022_ESA_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Antarctica_ice-piracy_speed-direction_Crosson-Dotson-Ice-Shelves_2015-2022_ESA_1s.webp" alt="The image depicts the average speed and direction of multiple glaciers flowing into the Crosson and Dotson Ice Shelves in West Antarctica from 2015 to 2022. The arrows show change in direction of flow. Credit: ESA" class="wp-image-1969725"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The image depicts the average speed and direction of multiple glaciers flowing into the Crosson and Dotson Ice Shelves in West Antarctica from 2015 to 2022. The arrows show change in direction of flow. Click image to enlarge. Credit: ESA</figcaption></figure>



Data was sourced from satellites operated by ESA, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.



“This study provides an interesting demonstration of ice piracy, where flow into one glacier gradually switches to flow into another glacier, as the ocean melts the grounding zone and re-configures ice flow,” said Pierre Dutrieux, climate researcher at the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">British Antarctic Survey</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-does-any-of-this-matter">Why does any of this matter?</h2>



The research team looked into several factors that influence ice flow, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-temperatures-are-rising-faster-than-expected-and-likely-to-accelerate/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ocean temperatures</a>, circulation changes, air temperature, and snowfall. 



They discovered that ice redirection is affecting the amount of ice reaching the floating ice shelves fed by these glaciers.



Two major ice shelves - the Crosson and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctica-ice-shapes-never-seen-by-humans-dotson-ice-shelf-ran-submersible/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dotson</a> - are already among the fastest-changing outlets in West Antarctica. 



Crosson spans roughly 40 miles (60 kilometers), and Dotson stretches about 30 miles (48 kilometers). Both are thinning and retreating at their grounding lines.



<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-full"><a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Antarctica_ice-piracy_Crosson-Dotson-Ice-Shelves_map_ESA_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Antarctica_ice-piracy_Crosson-Dotson-Ice-Shelves_map_ESA_1s.webp" alt="The Crosson and Dotson Ice Shelves are situated in West Antarctica. These huge ice shelves are fed by numerous glaciers flowing towards the Amundsen Sea. Credit: ESA" class="wp-image-1969723"/></a><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">The Crosson and Dotson Ice Shelves are situated in West Antarctica. These huge ice shelves are fed by numerous glaciers flowing towards the Amundsen Sea. Click image to enlarge. Credit: ESA</figcaption></figure>



“The changes in flow direction have substantially altered the ice mass flux into Dotson and Crosson Ice Shelves, likely playing an important role in maintaining Dotson and accelerating the deterioration of Crosson," explained Professor Anna Hogg, co-author and Professor of Earth Observation at the University of Leeds.



“This suggests that ice flow redirection is an important new process in contemporary <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ice-sheet-fracture-sets-a-speed-record-in-antarctica/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ice sheet dynamics</a>, which is required to understand present-day structural change in glaciers and the future evolution of these systems.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ice-piracy-rising-seas-global-impacts">Ice piracy, rising seas, global impacts</h2>



The stakes are high. Sea levels are already rising due to climate change, and over 410 million people could be affected by coastal flooding by the year 2100. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/global-sea-levels-spiked-dramatically-in-2023/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Global sea levels</a> have increased by more than 10 centimeters over the past decade.



“This new study highlights the unique ability of satellites to provide both the temporal and spatial coverage required to assess change in the polar regions,” remarked Dr. Martin Wearing, ESA Digital Twin Earth Scientist and Polar Science Cluster Coordinator.



Using data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 and ESA's Earth Explorer CryoSat, the team has revealed the complex evolution of ice flow in part of West Antarctica over the past few decades. 



Understanding these changing dynamics and what drives them is crucial for improved projections of future ice-sheet change and contributions to sea-level rise.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-does-it-all-mean">What does it all mean?</h2>



To sum it all up, the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-ice-sheet-past-present-and-future/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Antarctic ice sheet</a> - once thought to be sluggish and stable over millennia - is changing much faster than we realized, and in unexpected ways. 



This discovery of "ice piracy" shows that glaciers can dynamically interact, competing for ice and rerouting flow like rivers shifting course, which completely reshapes how we model future sea-level rise.



If one glacier can weaken another by stealing its ice, entire ice systems may destabilize quicker than predicted, feeding more ice into the ocean and raising sea levels. 



In plain terms: Antarctica isn’t just melting - it’s reorganizing itself in ways that could have big consequences for coastal cities around the world.



-----



The study brought together experts from the University of Leeds, the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">British Antarctic Survey</a>, and the UK Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (<a href="https://cpom.org.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CPOM</a>), which is led from <a href="https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Northumbria University</a>. 



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/19/1725/2025/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Cryosphere</a>.



-----



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Ice piracy: Antarctic glacier discovered "stealing" ice from a neighbor, and that's not good for sea level rise

A new phenomenon dubbed "ice piracy" is unfolding in the frigid wilderness of West Antarctica, where one glacier appears to be stealing ice from its neighbor. This unusual behavior - once believed to take hundreds or even thousands of years - has now been recorded happening in under two decades. Scientists from the University of Leeds, working with international collaborators, have used high-resolution satellite data to reveal that a fast-moving glacier is redirecting ice flow away from its slower neighbor. This surprising event is changing how scientists...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Declining populations of pollinators is a major concern to ecologists because bees, butterflies and other insects play a critical role in supporting healthy ecosystems. Now a new study from urban ecologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst suggests that when urban and suburban lawns are left untreated with herbicides, they provide a diversity of "spontaneous" flowers such as dandelions and clover that offer nectar and pollen to bees and other pollinators.</div>
Private lawns make up a significant part of urban lands in the United States, an estimated 50 percent of city and suburbs, say Susannah Lerman and co-author Joan Milam, an adjunct research fellow in environmental conservation. They write, "Practices that support nesting and foraging opportunities for bees could have important implications for bee conservation in suburban areas."

Lerman, an adjunct UMass Amherst faculty member who is also with the U.S. Forest Service, says, "We are still surprised at how many bees we found on these untreated lawns."

In this study of lawns in suburban Springfield, Mass., she and Milam found that "spontaneous lawn flowers could be viewed as supplemental floral resources and support pollinators, thereby enhancing the value of urban green spaces." Details appear in the current issue of Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

For this study, supported by the National Science Foundation, the researchers enlisted owners of 17 lawns in suburban Springfield. Between May 2013 and September 2014, the homeowners did not apply chemical pesticides or herbicides to lawns.

"We documented 63 plant species in the lawns, the majority of which were not intentionally planted," the authors report. Lerman and Milam visited each yard six times per year for two years, finding a total of 5,331 individual bees representing 111 species, of which 97 percent were native to North America.

Of particular interest was the discovery of a large population of Lasioglossum illinoense, a widespread sweat bee species and common in its range, but known in Massachusetts only from a single specimen collected in the late 1920s. The population of L. illinoense in Springfield lawns documents the northeastern range limit for this species.

Conserving native bees for their vital pollination services is of national interest, Lerman and Milam point out, and this new information on native bee distribution and abundance is important for making informed conservation and management decisions regarding pollinator conservation.

Overall, one of their main findings, say Lerman and Milam, is that "when lawns are not intensively managed, lawn flowers can serve as wildlife habitat and contribute to networks of urban green spaces."

Further, "developing outreach to homeowners and lawn care companies to encourage, rather than eliminate, lawn flowers such as dandelions and clover and thin grass cover or bare spots could be a key strategy for urban bee conservation programs targeting private yards."


</div>
<div></div>

Scientists: Help save the bees by keeping lawns natural

Declining populations of pollinators is a major concern to ecologists...

Hurricane Matthew maintains strength along Atlantic Coast. In its record-long week as a major hurricane, Matthew has threaded the needle with its track, staying over warm waters that provide fuel and avoiding land that could starve it. That's been a bit of good news for Florida, but if does actually hit land farther up the coast - and that's still a big question mark - that region would pay the price for Florida's good luck.
Here are some questions and answers about Hurricane Matthew:
---
Q: What does Matthew not quite hitting Florida mean for Georgia and the Carolinas?
A: It keeps the danger level higher, meteorologists say, because the close-but-not-quite-over-land track has kept Matthew's eye relatively strong. It's now been a week and counting as a major hurricane.
Matthew has found "one of the most ideal tracks that a hurricane can find to maintain that intensity," said University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher Brian McNoldy.
"It probably would be weaker if it would have gone over land in Florida instead of what it's doing," agreed senior scientist Christopher Davis at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Q: How tight a needle has Matthew threaded?
A: Matthew is traveling up the Atlantic's warm Gulf Stream. A bit to the east, the water is cooler, providing weaker fuel. Just 10-to-30 miles westward is the coast, where the air is drier.
When a storm moves over land from warm water, it is like the ultimate severe diet: Eventually, it starves.
"This is a case that will probably save a lot of the coastal cities from pretty destructive wind, but the hurricane itself will maintain a lot of intensity," McNoldy says.
Just outside the eyewall, the wind speed has dropped dramatically; by noon Friday, no place on Florida had sustained winds that were hurricane force, even though Cape Canaveral had a gust of 107 mph, says former hurricane hunter meteorologist Jeff Masters, meteorology director of Weather Underground.
That makes storm surge more of a problem than winds, at least in Florida, according to McNoldy and Masters.
---
Q: Why is Matthew hugging the coast, but not making landfall?
A: There's no scientific reason meteorologists know of. Hurricanes are guided by atmospheric currents, not ocean flows or the cut of the coastline.
"At this point it's just luck," McNoldy says. "There is no real reason why this whole curve is going the shape of the coastline. It could have gone 20 miles east, 20 miles west."
Even when Matthew passed between Haiti and Cuba, it mostly avoided land, especially mountains that could dramatically choke storms.
"It's quite strange actually," McNoldy says. "The atmosphere doesn't really know about the curvature of the coastline."
---
Q: How unusual for Matthew to stay strong so long?
A: It's not just unusual - it's a record, if you look at it in a certain way.
At more than a week of major hurricane strength, with sustained winds over 110 mph, Matthew beat the old record of six days for storms after Sept. 25, according Phil Klotzbach, meteorology professor at Colorado State University. Klotzbach uses this date - after start of fall - because atmospheric and water conditions are quite different in the later part of hurricane season, making it harder for storms to stay strong.
Matthew has been moving over water several degrees warmer than average, on a track relatively free of higher, weakening winds. These conditions, especially the winds, are likely to change.
---
Q: So will the U.S. continue its "drought" of major hurricane landfalls?
A: It's been nearly 11 years since 2005's Hurricane Wilma, since a major hurricane made landfall in the United States, a record long time. Meteorologists had been thinking Matthew would end it, but now they say there's a good possibility the drought will continue.
South Carolina still has a decent chance of being hit directly, but even then, Matthew could weaken just a bit and slip below major hurricane status, Masters says.
The nearly 11 year drought is an artificial construct, just random chance, Masters says. For example, Superstorm Sandy struck during that time and was devastating, but technically wasn't a major hurricane in terms of wind speed, even if it was major for destruction. And in 2008, Hurricane Ike missed being a major hurricane at landfall by just 5 mph, so if definitions had been slightly different, no one would be talking drought, Masters says.
---
Q: Has anything good come out of Matthew's hugging <a href="https://www.bing.com/search?q=florida&amp;cvid=519823df7dbe481f9c65f735e2dbf1cb&amp;FORM=ANAB01&amp;PC=HCTS">Florida</a>?
A: Most likely yes, says Davis. The National <a href="http://www.earth.com/endangered-species/megalagrion-oceanicum/">Oceanic</a> and Atmospheric Administration planes fly out of western Florida and the proximity has enabled them to make many research trips.
Plus, the storm has been close enough to NOAA radar to provide scientists with good inside-the-action data, Davis says.
"In a sense you can look at this as being a benefit in some ways to hurricane research," Davis says. "A silver lining perhaps."
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Hurricane Matthew maintains strength along Atlantic Coast

Hurricane Matthew maintains strength along Atlantic Coast. In its record-long...

<div>Forest fires hit the headlines all too regularly - in fact, fire affects about 4.64 million km2 of biomass per year, an area almost three times the size of Alaska. But after the fire something remains - stable carbon.</div>
<div>

Pyrogenic organic carbon, sometimes called black carbon or PyC, is the dark, charcoal-like form of carbon that's left on the soil when vegetation is burned. It is not much of a pollutant though - it plays a role in both climate and soil science, because of its ability to absorb sunlight and store nutrients needed for plant growth.

But despite its importance in maintaining our ecological balance, researchers have historically had very little knowledge of just how much PyC we have on Earth, or where it can be found.

Thanks to work from researchers at the University of Zurich (UZH) and their study published in <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/feart.2016.00080/full" target="_blank">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>, that's all about to change. They have developed the world's first global PyC database, and they say that it, in time, it will help us to refine our understanding of the carbon cycle.

This undertaking, led by Dr. Samuel Abiven, involved the collection of more than 560 measurements of PyC across a range of published studies. This provided data on everything from the soil type to what's called the 'soil organic carbon' - a key measure of the soil's health. To determine why PyC might be found in each study region, the team also looked at the three main factors that could influence its presence in soil - (1) land use and the nature of fires, (2) climate conditions, such as temperature and humidity, and (3) the soil's properties, e.g. its acidity. For these, Abiven and his team had to look to other valuable sources of data, including NASA satellite imagery products, which offered insights into land cover or the pattern and frequency of fires in each region.

Once assembled, the database could then be used to examine the presence of PyC across the globe, and the results were surprising. They found that, PyC is a major component in soil overall the world, representing 13% of the organic matter in average, which corresponds to more than half of the organic matter identified until now. In some regions, PyC represented up to 60% of the organic matter. As the authors have said themselves, these results paint "an unexpected new picture on PyC distribution in soils."

A key finding was that the type of fire didn't make a difference - fires could be large and intense, or 'cool' and small, the resulting amount of PyC found in the soil varied very little. Another result was the link between PyC content and land use - agricultural land came out on top, with the highest proportion of this useful form of carbon in its soil. Unsurprisingly, warm equatorial regions were found to be PyC-rich, whereas polar regions, with their much lower vegetation cover, were show low PyC concentrations. High pH, clay-rich soils seemed to retain their pyrogenic organic carbon better than any other soil type - the authors believe that this is because its special minerals can bind and stabilize PyC for an extended duration.

When asked what he believed to be the key finding of the study, Abiven said, "It is that PyC represents such a large amount of the soil organic matter - there is more of it than there are identifiable molecules that originate from plants. This makes it the most persistent compound in soil we know to date. In addition, the fact that soil properties matter more than fire patterns or climate reflects the importance of PyC to longer term dynamics."

There are some limitations to this study - as yet, most of the data collected come from Europe, North America and Australia, leaving parts of the world unexplored. But with input from the wider scientific community, Abiven hopes to change that, "The <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3750657.v2" target="_blank">database</a> is available and open access to the scientific community and everybody is welcome to use and extend it!"


</div>
<div></div>

How much black carbon is left behind after a forest fire?

Forest fires hit the headlines all too regularly - in...

Algae blooms are forcing the closure of shellfish beds around New England, including most of Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island and much of the coast of Maine.
It's the first time harmful algae has prompted a shellfishing closure in Rhode Island, the state Department of Environmental Management said Friday.
Shellfish dealers in Rhode Island have been asked to stop selling their inventory, and consumers have been asked not to eat the shellfish until tests come back to determine whether the contamination has gotten into the meat, a state health department official said. No illnesses had been reported Friday.
Officials said the ban will remain in place until further notice.
In Maine, shellfishing is closed on the coastline between Deer Isle and the Canadian border.
The Portland Press Herald reports high levels of the toxin domoic acid have been detected in shellfish in Maine, leading to a recall of about five tons of mussels and clams.
"A closure for this toxin in eastern Maine is unprecedented, that is not anything anyone has ever seen," Darcie Couture, a Brunswick marine scientist and former head of the state's marine biotoxin program, told the newspaper. "No one on this coast is that experienced with a domoic acid event," Couture said. "I don't think it is sinking in how serious this is."
Rhode Island officials are monitoring for the same toxin, which can cause serious health problems.
Ernest Julian, a spokesman for the state Health Department, says eating contaminated shellfish can cause symptoms including vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea and memory loss. Eating enough can cause death, he said.
"It's not common, but it's possible," he said.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Algae blooms force shellfish bans in parts of New England

Algae blooms are forcing the closure of shellfish beds around...

The EU celebrated the Paris Agreement's imminent entry into force with a ceremony at United Nations headquarters on Friday, claiming credit for pushing the treaty that seeks to curtail the emissions of greenhouse gases past its final hurdle.
Poland, an EU member state, deposited the documents necessary for joining the treaty during the ceremony, bringing the number of EU countries that are party to the deal to eight.
The Paris Agreement is set to take effect on Nov. 4 - 30 days after the number of countries ratifying the deal accounted for more than 55 percent of global emissions on Wednesday.
"Thanks to this, the second condition necessary for this international agreement to enter into force was met and the EU has triggered the action," said Slovak Environment Minister Laszlo Solymos, whose country currently holds the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Bolivia, Nepal and Canada joined EU countries Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Portugal and Slovakia in depositing their ratifications Wednesday and that all those countries would be considered to have pushed the treaty over the threshold together.
The Paris Agreement which was adopted by consensus on Dec. 12, 2015, commits rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting weather patterns. It requires governments to present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
But the treaty stipulated that it would only enter into force 30 days after at least 55 countries accounting for at least 55 percent of global emissions deposited their instruments of ratification at the U.N.
On Sept. 21, 31 countries formally joined the accord, bringing the total number to 60 but because they only accounted for a little less than 48 percent of emissions, the agreement remained in limbo.
Meanwhile, a number of European countries that had ratified the agreement and could have potentially triggered the accord, could not join because EU rules required them to enter as bloc - only after all 28 member states' parliaments each approved the deal.
This created a sticky situation for the EU - which accounts for 12 percent of global emissions and prides itself on being a leader in the fight against global warming - until last week when diplomats crafted an exception allowing individual nations to sign on.
As of Friday, 75 parties accounting for 59.9 percent of emissions had joined.
Miguel Arias Canete, the EU's commissioner for climate action and energy, said he expected more European countries to ratify the accord soon.
"Never before has an important agreement been ratified so quickly and so well," Canete said. "This is a clear sign of the political will to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy and we need that in bucket loads because climate change is wreaking havoc across the globe now as we sit here."
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

European Union celebrates the Paris Agreement on climate change

The EU celebrated the Paris Agreement's imminent entry into force...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">As Hurricane Matthew continues to crawl along the southeastern U.S. coast NASA observed the storm's winds, clouds, precipitation and more. Matthew remained a major hurricane on Friday, Oct. 7 at 2 p.m. EDT.</div>
On Oct. 6, NASA's CloudSat passed over the eastern quadrant of Hurricane Matthew at 2:30 p.m. EDT. CloudSat revealed the anvil (thick cirrus cloud cover) with cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds beneath the cirrus. CloudSat found areas of higher reflectivity that included larger water and/or ice droplets throughout the clouds.

The next day, NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite observatory captured data on Matthew's winds. SMAP observations of hurricane Matthew showed winds up to 132 mph (59 meters per second/212 kph) at 7:52 a.m. EDT (11:52 UTC) on Oct. 7. "SMAP has excellent sensitivity to extreme winds, far beyond that from typical scatterometers," said Alexander Fore, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "SMAP is sensitive to these extreme winds due to the use of the L-band passive brightness temperature observation, which has the additional benefit of not being attenuated by rain giving accurate wind speeds regardless of rain conditions."

SMAP will map global soil moisture and detect whether soils are frozen or thawed. The mission will help scientists understand the links between Earth's water, energy and carbon cycles; help reduce uncertainties in predicting weather and climate; and enhance our ability to monitor and predict natural hazards such as floods and droughts.

At 2:30 p.m. EDT a visible image from NOAA's GOES-East satellite showed Matthew's clouds engulfing almost all of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. The image was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

At that time a Hurricane Warning was in effect for Cocoa Beach to Surf City. A Hurricane Watch is in effect from north of Surf City to Cape Lookout, North Carolina. A Tropical Storm Warning was in effect from Florida's Sebastian Inlet to Cocoa Beach, and north of Surf City to Duck, North Carolina, and the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, North Carolina.

At 2 p.m. EDT (1800 UTC) on Oct. 7, Matthew remained a Category 3 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The eye of Hurricane Matthew was located near latitude 29.7 North, longitude 80.7 West. That's about 40 miles (60 km) east-southeast of St. Augustine, Florida.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Matthew is moving toward the north-northwest near 13 mph (20 km/h), and this general motion is expected to continue today. A turn toward the north is expected tonight or Saturday, Oct. 8. On the forecast track, the center of Matthew will continue to move near or over the coast of northeast Florida and Georgia through tonight, and near or over the coast of South Carolina on Saturday.

Maximum sustained winds are near 115 mph (185 kph) with higher gusts. Matthew is a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Although weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours, Matthew is expected to remain a hurricane until it begins to move away from the United States on Sunday.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 60 miles (95 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 185 miles (295 km). The latest minimum central pressure reported by an Air Force Hurricane Hunter plane was 947 millibars.

A wind gust to 84 mph (135 kph) was recently reported at Ponte Vedra, and a coastal marine observing station at St. Augustine recently measured a wind gust of 85 mph (137 kph). A tidal gauge at Fernandina Beach, Florida reported a storm surge inundation of 3.11 feet above mean higher high water.

For updated forecasts, please visit the National Hurricane Center website: <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nhc.noaa.gov</a>.


</div>
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Hurricane Matthew continues to crawl along the Florida coast

As Hurricane Matthew continues to crawl along the southeastern U.S....

<div>Rising levels of noise in the ocean have been identified as a growing concern for the well-being of marine mammals, but other threats such as pollution, climate change, and prey depletion by fisheries may also harm marine mammals and influence their response to additional noise. Current knowledge and data are insufficient to determine what combination of factors cause the greatest concern, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The report includes a newly developed conceptual framework model to help federal agencies and research communities explore the potential cumulative effects of human activities on marine mammals.</div>
<div>

Building on previous Academies reports that explored the impact of sound on marine mammals, this report places sound in the context of other stresses that these animals may experience. The report highlights three main challenges in making progress on this issue of cumulative effects: understanding the interaction between different stress-causing agents (stressors), designing studies to better understand the response to more than one stressor, and the difficulty in detecting impacts at the population level.

While experiments are useful in defining the relationship between exposure level (the dosage) and a behavioral or physiological response to one stressor, it is typically impractical to test the interaction among varying dosages of multiple stressors. The conceptual framework recommended in the report is designed to help researchers address discrete aspects of the problem and develop tools to help assess how these various factors affect marine mammals. One tool recommended by the committee is a real-time, centralized system for reporting health data of different populations.

"Current scientific theory and data for individual marine mammals or their population is not enough to predict the total risk from a combination of threats," said Peter L. Tyack, professor of marine mammal biology at the University of Saint Andrews in Scotland and the chair of the committee that conducted the study and wrote the report. "The model we developed in this report provides a way to examine the effects associated with the exposure to a single stressor in the context of the cumulative effect of other stressors in the animal's environment."

Although the impacts from some stressors such as persistent chemical pollutants or ocean climate cannot be readily reduced, others like noise, fisheries, or shipping routes can be managed to reduce their impact. For managers to be able to decide how best to reduce the effects of activities that threaten the mammals, researchers need to develop methods to assess how changes in a combination of stressors can best bring the population to a healthy resilient state. For example, research shows reduced noise associated with lessened commercial shipping after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 9, 2001, was associated with reduced stress hormones among the right whales than seen earlier.

The committee also recommended using a framework that assesses the health of individual mammals impacted by an activity, and using changes in health to determine how it could eventually affect populations. For example, North Atlantic right whales, a protected species since the 1930s, still have an extremely low population size, are exposed to noise and chemical pollutants, and also encounter physical injury during their lengthy migration due to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with shipping vessels. Archived records of their life histories, including photos and drawings, have helped provide information on health variations and locations over time. Researchers have used these data to determine certain causes of decline in the population, such as a dramatic decrease in the health of female whales and low reproduction coinciding with reduced prey availability. These different relationships can be used in the proposed framework to detect early warning signs of risks to populations. The report says federal agencies and other research funders should support efforts to develop case studies such as the right whales and apply this model to other marine mammal populations.

The report recommends building affordable surveillance systems that can detect changes in population parameters such as size or reproductive rate and hence indicate when populations may be at risk due to exposure to stressors. Additionally, the committee proposed a decision tree that helps identify when interactions between stressors should be studied as high priority when considering the effect of a focal stressor on a population.

The study was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, and the Marine Mammal Commission. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. For more information, visit <a href="http://national-academies.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://national-academies.org</a>. A roster follows.
###
Contacts:

Riya V. Anandwala, Media Relations Officer
Rebecca Ray, Media Relations Assistant
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail <a href="mailto:news@nas.edu">news@nas.edu</a>
<a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-10/naos-ate100716.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">national-academies.org/newsroom</a>national-academies.org/newsroom

Follow us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/theNASEM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@theNASEM</a>

Copies of Approaches to Understanding the Cumulative Effects of Stressors on Marine Mammals are available at <a href="http://www.nap.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nap.edu</a> or by calling 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above).

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCIENCES, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE

Division on Earth and Life Studies

&nbsp;

</div>
<div></div>

Measuring the impact of human activity on marine mammals

Rising levels of noise in the ocean have been identified...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">A new discovery takes plants' deception of their pollinators to a whole new level. Researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on October 6 found that the ornamental plant popularly known as Giant Ceropegia fools certain freeloading flies into pollinating it by mimicking the scent of honeybees under attack. The flies find that smell attractive because they typically dine on the drippings of honeybees that are in the clutches of a spider or other predatory insect.</div>
"These flowers have a complex morphology, including trapping structures to catch pollinators, temporarily trap, and finally release them," says Stefan Dötterl of the University of Salzburg in Austria. "We show that trap flowers of this plant mimic alarm substances of western honeybees to lure food-stealing freeloader flies as pollinators. Flies are attracted to the flowers, expecting a meal, but instead of finding an attacked honeybee they are temporarily trapped in the non-rewarding flowers and misused as pollinators."

About four to six percent of plants, including the fly-pollinated genus Ceropegia, are pollinated by deceit. They engage in false advertising by appearing to offer a reward, such as pollen or nectar, a mating partner, or an egg-laying site. The new study is among the first to describe a plant that achieves pollination by mimicking the scent of an adult carnivorous animal's dinner.

[caption id="attachment_88708" align="alignleft" width="150"]<img class="size-thumbnail wp-image-88708" src="http://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cff2.earth-com-temp.comuploads20161006121055media.eurekalert.orgmultimedia_prodpubweb123648_web-742af40fb4d02267f488b151231fa7ccd79977f6-db3cc7df897101115966080187a60c86301c1407-150x150.jpg" alt="a honeybee eaten by a spider with food stealing kleptoparasitic flies" width="150" height="150" /> a honeybee eaten by a spider[/caption]

Study co-authors Annemarie Heiduk and Ulrich Meve from the University of Bayreuth in Germany got curious when they realized that the flies pollinating Ceropegia sandersonii were Desmometopa. The flies are known as kleptoparasites, commonly feeding on honeybees eaten by spiders.

"We asked ourselves how the flies might find such honeybees," Dötterl says.

When observing a honeybee caught by a spider, they noticed that the bee extrudes its sting and releases a drop of venom. The bees' venom is known to contain volatile alarm pheromones, which serve to call and attract nest mates for help. They wondered whether the plant might be taking advantage of this line of communication among honeybees.

Preliminary experiments showed that honeybees under simulated attack are highly attractive to the flies. In the new study, the researchers show that the floral scent of C. sandersonii is indeed comparable to volatiles released from honeybees when under simulated attack. Some of those shared compounds also elicit a response in the antennae of pollinating Desmometopa flies and are strong attractants for these insects. The evidence is clear: an unusual blend of compounds emitted by C. sandersonii lures kleptoparasitic flies into the plants' trap flowers.

The researchers say they now hope to find out whether other plants, including other species of Ceropegia pollinated by kleptoparasitic flies, use a similar reproductive strategy.
###
This research was funded by the Bavarian Elite Aid Act.

Current Biology, Heiduk et al.: "Ceropegia sandersonii Mimics Attacked Honeybees to Attract Kleptoparasitic Flies for Pollination" <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30879-X" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30879-X</a>

Current Biology (<a href="https://twitter.com/CurrentBiology">@CurrentBiology</a>), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.cell.com/current-biology</a>. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact <a href="mailto:press@cell.com">press@cell.com</a>.

</div>

Giant Ceropegia flower mimics the smell of an attacked bee

A new discovery takes plants' deception of their pollinators to...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Tropical Storm Nicole intensified into a hurricane to join Matthew in the Atlantic Ocean, and together they set a record.</div>
On Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. EDT Nicole strengthen into a hurricane. By 11 p.m. EDT Nicole reached maximum intensity with maximum sustained winds near 105 mph. As Hurricane Matthew's winds were near 120 mph at the time Nicole peaked, it marked the latest in the calendar year that two storms in the North Atlantic Ocean have had winds over 105 mph simultaneously, according to Joe Munchak, research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Since that time, vertical wind shear has been affecting the storm and it weakened. At 5 a.m. EDT on Oct. 7, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said "Nicole no longer has an eye in infrared satellite imagery, and the cloud pattern suggests that 30 knots of northwesterly shear is beginning to offset the deep convection to the southeast of the center."

A visible image of Hurricane Nicole in the Atlantic Ocean taken by NOAA's GOES-East satellite on Oct. 7 at 7:45 a.m. EDT shows clouds being pushed away from the center by vertical wind shear. NOAA manages the GOES satellites and the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland used the data to create the image.

At 5 a.m. (0900 UTC), the center of Hurricane Nicole was located near 27.3 degrees north latitude and 65.2 degrees west longitude. That's about 345 miles (555 km) south of Bermuda. Nicole is drifting southward, and a slightly faster southward motion is expected tonight and on Saturday, Oct. 8.

NHC noted that Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 100 mph (155 kph) with higher gusts. Additional weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours. The estimated minimum central pressure is 970 millibars.

Swells associated with Nicole, along with rough surf conditions, will affect Bermuda for the next few days.
###
For forecast updates on Nicole, visit the National Hurricane Center page: <a href="http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.nhc.noaa.gov</a>.

</div>

Hurricane Nicole joins Hurricane Matthew to set a record

Tropical Storm Nicole intensified into a hurricane to join Matthew...

The United States is trying to broker an agreement between a host of nations to prohibit unregulated fishing in the international waters of the Arctic Ocean.
Such an agreement would be binding and include more countries than a non-binding agreement that the U.S. entered into with Norway, Denmark, Russia and Canada last year to avoid fishing in the area.
Adm. Robert Papp, the U.S. special representative for the Arctic, said a binding, multinational agreement would prevent fishing in the Arctic high seas before scientists can determine what is sustainable. He said the issue is especially important as Arctic ice melts, making the area more open to potential commercial fishing.
"We don't want people fishing in there until we have the science of what's happening," Papp said. "It's a pre-emptive effort to be able to sustain fisheries into the future."
The U.S. would like to get nations such as China, Korea, Japan and members of the European Union on board with the fishing shutdown, Papp said. He estimated that such an agreement is most likely a couple of years away.
The issue of Arctic Ocean fishing was one of many Arctic issues discussed this week at a diplomatic meeting of the Arctic Council's Senior Arctic Officials in Portland, Maine, that ended Thursday.
Arctic fishing also is on the radar of environmental organizations, such as The Pew Charitable Trusts, which has argued for a binding agreement signed by many nations to shut down fishing. Pew has called the current non-binding agreement "laudable" but also said a broader deal is needed because unregulated fishing could do damage to the Arctic Ocean's ecosystem as waters continue to warm.
The U.S. State Department said last year that the non-binding agreement, signed in Oslo, acknowledged that commercial fishing in the central Arctic Ocean - an area bigger than Alaska and Texas combined - is unlikely to happen soon. But it also acknowledged that the reduction of Arctic sea ice and the limited scope of scientific knowledge about marine life in the area make it necessary to prevent unregulated fishing.
Signers agreed not to fish in the area until international fishing management measures are in place for the Arctic's high seas. More than 200 species of fish thrive in the Arctic, some of which have commercial value, such as the Arctic cod.
© 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about ourPrivacy Policy and Terms of Use.

US wants to form an agremeent to ban Arctic Ocean fishing

The United States is trying to broker an agreement between...

<div>
<div class="img-wrapper">Tropical Storm Aere was drifting in the South China Sea, just south of Hong Kong, as NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead.</div>
As a result of the storm's close proximity to land, the Central Weather Bureau of Hong Kong issued Standby signal #1.

On Oct. 7 at 02:50 UTC (Oct. 6 at 10:50 p.m. EDT) the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of Tropical Storm Aere off southeast China. Thunderstorms circled the well-defined center of the storm while a large band of thunderstorms feeding into the center stretched to the north and northeast of the center over the coast of China.

At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 7, Tropical Storm Aere's maximum sustained winds were near 52 mph (45 knots/83 kph). Aere continues to intensify while over warm sea surface temperatures.

It was about 148 nautical miles southeast of Hong Kong, near 20.8 degrees north latitude and 116.3 degrees east longitude. Aere was moving to the north-northwest at 4.6 mph (4 knots/7.4 kph).

There is currently no big weather system to drive the track of Aere, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center said that a developing sub-tropical ridge (elongated area) of high pressure building over China will push the storm to the west. Current forecast track moves Aere south of Hainan Island, China by Oct. 12.


</div>
<div></div>

Tropical Storm Aere drifting in the South China Sea

Tropical Storm Aere was drifting in the South China Sea,...

As a consequence of a warming Earth, the risk of a megadrought – one that lasts more than 35 years – in the American Southwest likely will rise from a low chance over the past thousand years to a 20 to 50 percent chance in this century. However, by slashing greenhouse gas emissions, these risks are nearly cut in half, according to a Cornell-led study in Science Advances, Oct. 5.

“Megadroughts are rare events, occurring only once or twice each millennium. In <a href="http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/02/megadrought-likely-western-us-end-century">earlier work</a>, we showed that climate change boosts the chances of a megadrought, but in this paper we investigated how cutting fossil fuel emissions reduces this risk,” said lead author <a href="http://www.eas.cornell.edu/people/profile.cfm?netid=tra38_eng">Toby Ault</a>, Cornell professor of earth and atmospheric science.

If climate change goes unabated – and causes more than a 2 degree Celsius increase in atmospheric temperature – megadroughts will become very probable, Ault said.

“The increase in risk is not due to any particular change in the dynamic circulation of the atmosphere,” Ault said. “It’s because the projected increase in atmospheric demand for moisture from the land surface will shift the soil moisture balance. If this happens, megadroughts will be far more likely for next millennium.”

Ault explained a natural “tug-of-war” governing the surface moisture balance between the precipitation supply (rain) and evaporation (transpiration). But he cautions that increases in average regional temperatures could be so dramatic – more than 4 degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) – that evaporation wins out. This, in turn, dries out the land surface and makes megadroughts 70 to 99 percent likely.

“We found that megadrought risk depends strongly on temperature, which is somewhat good news,” Ault said. “This means that an aggressive strategy for cutting greenhouse gas emissions could keep regional temperature changes from going beyond about 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).”

This lower average warming figure cuts the megadrought risk almost in half, he said.

These tug-of-war scenarios could very well play out in the American Southwest, according to tree ring and geologic records. During sequences of exceptionally dry years, those rings tend to be relatively narrower than in wet years, he said.

“Tree rings from the American Southwest provides evidence of megadroughts, as there are multiple decades when growth is suppressed by dry conditions,” Ault said, pointing to several megadroughts that occurred in North America between 1300 and 1100 B.C.

“We also know they have occurred in other parts of the world, and they have been linked to the demise of several pre-industrial civilizations,” he said.

The tug-of-war between moisture supply and demand might play out differently in other parts of the world, Ault said.

“Nonetheless, even in the Southwest we found examples of plausible 21st-century climates where precipitation increases, but megadroughts still become more likely,” said Ault, who noted the normally verdant Northeast is in the middle of drought. “This should serve as a cautionary note for areas like the Northeast expecting to see a more-average moisture supply.

“Megadrought risks are still likely to be higher in the future than they were in the past,” he said. “Hence, efficient use of water resources in the drought-stricken American Southwest are likely to help that region thrive during a changing climate.”

On the paper, “<a href="http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/10/e1600873">Relative Impacts of Mitigation, Temperature, and Precipitation on 21st-Century Megadrought Risk in the American Southwest</a>,” Ault is joined by Justin S. Mankin and Benjamin Cook, both of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and Jason E. Smerdon of Columbia University. The National Science Foundation supported this research.

Scientists: Virtual certainty of a megadrought in the American Southwest

As a consequence of a warming Earth, the risk of...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

[sendtonews key="uV9Lh2fQbV-1760058-12187" type="single"] Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s...

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

[sendtonews key="f8fukm28Vz-2491833-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes how Earth is unique in our solar system for its ability to sustain liquid water on its surface. But now, the water cycle is shifting as the climate warms, and scientists must find ways to predict how these changes will affect water availability.



Overall, 96 percent of Earth's water is saltwater, and nearly all of freshwater is found in ice and groundwater. These sources of water are linked as it passes through solid, liquid and gas phases.



In a warmer climate, the water cycle will be transformed. It will be easier for water to evaporate and form clouds, and storms will become more frequent and intense. Some regions will get too much water, while others will be left without enough water. In addition, soil moisture will be lost - which threatens food security.



Scientists are using satellite data from over the last 40 years to track changes that are happening in the water cycle. This will ultimately help us prepare for extreme events and better manage our water resources, according to ESA.



Video Credit: ESA



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tracking changes in Earth's water cycle

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a> features images of Saturn from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The photographs capture the start of the mysterious "spoke season" on Saturn - when unexplained features appear on its rings. 



According to NASA, both the cause of the spokes and their seasonal variability have yet to be fully explained by planetary scientists.



"Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun," explains NASA.



"The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn. (When the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet.) As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable."



Experts believe that the spokes may be a product of the planet's variable magnetic field. When magnetic fields interact with solar wind, an electrically charged environment is created. This phenomenon is visible on Earth as the northern lights.&nbsp;



"Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings," says NASA.



The spokes were first observed in the early 1980s by NASA's Voyager mission. Depending on the angle of the rings, the spokes can appear dark or light.



"Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn’s spokes this season than ever before," said NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program.



"Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Mysterious "spoke season" captured on Saturn

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="http://www.ntu.edu.sg/">NTU Singapore</a> reveals that some plants can remove toxic heavy metals from soil.&nbsp;



The researchers analyzed samples of various tropical plant species to test for levels of heavy metals and metalloids. The study showed that there are existing plants with high levels of these contaminants, which means that these species are great candidates for drawing pollutants out of the soil.&nbsp;



Among the plants examined in the study, 12 species had accumulated several types of heavy metals and metalloids. These plants are widely available, including species that are native to Singapore.



“In a small nation like Singapore, land may be repurposed to support new development plans, so it is important that we have a green and sustainable way to remediate land that is contaminated," said Professor Lam Yeng Ming.



"We set out to uncover how to better make use of tropical plants to do phytoremediation and through advanced characterization techniques, we showed how some of these tropical plant species can be an environmentally friendly and literally a 'green' way to remove contaminants in soil."&nbsp;



"Phytoremediation also has benefits of cost effectiveness, simplicity of management, aesthetic advantages, and long-term applicability and sustainability. The strategy prevents erosion and metal leaching by stabilizing or accumulating heavy metals, so that helps reduce the risk of contaminant spread.”



Video Credit: NTU Singapore



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



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Plants help remove heavy metals from contaminated soil

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes why herbicides are not as effective in killing weeds anymore. In the 20th century, chemical companies developed thousands of herbicides. The most commonly used herbicide was glyphosate, which was introduced in 1974.



Over the past few decades, dozens of species of weeds have evolved resistance to glyphosate. Depending on the site of action, the part of the plant that an herbicide interacts with, weeds may even be resistant to herbicides that have not been developed yet.&nbsp;



With increasing resistance to glyphosate and other herbicides, weeds are - once again - becoming a major concern for farmers.&nbsp;



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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Weeds are becoming increasingly resistant to herbicides

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/">NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory</a> (JPL) describes a dust storm on Mars that was nearly twice the size of the United States. As the storm covered the southern hemisphere of the planet, some of NASA’s explorers had to delay their normal activities.



NASA’s Insight lander put itself in a "safe mode" for 11 days to conserve battery power because solar power was disrupted by the dust. The Ingenuity Mars Helicopter postponed flights until conditions improved.



"A fleet of NASA orbiters monitor Martian dust storms like this one and serve as lifelines to Earth by relaying data from the rovers and lander on the ground back to the team. This includes the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MAVEN, and Odyssey," reports JPL.



"Dust storms like this recent one start close to the ground and are spread by wind as they rise – warming the cold Martian atmosphere."



The images in the video were captured by NASA’s Curiosity as the dust rolled in. A fleet of orbiters monitored the dust storm from above, relaying data from Mars’ explorers back to scientists on Earth.



Video &amp; Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS



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



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NASA monitors giant dust storms on Mars

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="http://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz. This strait provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.



Qeshm is separated from the Iranian coast by the Clarence Strait, also known as Khuran.&nbsp;The Hara Forest Protected Area is a network of shallow waterways and forest located between the island and the mainland. This protected region is home to sea turtles, snakes, and more than 150 species of migrating birds.



Qeshm is famous for its wide range of&nbsp;ecotourist&nbsp;attractions, such as the&nbsp;Hara marine forests. According to environmentalists, about 1.5 percent of the world birds and 25 percent of Iran's native <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/female-hummingbirds-avoid-sexual-harassment-by-looking-like-males/">birds</a> annually migrate to the forests, which are the first national geo park in Iran.



Tourists are also drawn to the island to see an age-old Portuguese&nbsp;fort, historic mosques, the&nbsp;Seyyed Mozaffar&nbsp;and&nbsp;Bibi Maryam&nbsp;shrines, and the "Valley of Stars."



The average temperature on the island is 81 degress and the region is often hot and humid. From June to August, the island is described as being oppressively hot. The ideal time to visit is during the winter season. 



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique.&nbsp;



"Inhambane Bay is a deep inlet into which the small Mutamba River flows," says ESA. "On one side of the bay lies the historical city of Inhambane, capital of the Inhambane Province, while the sister city of Maxixe, the economic capital of Inhambane, sits across from it. The province is the second largest grower of cashews, after Nampula, and it also produces coconut and citrus fruits."



The beaches of Barra and Tofo are popular with tourists. There are also coral reefs along the long coastline of Inhambane, making it an ideal destination for scuba diving and snorkeling.



"Mozambique’s extensive coastline heightens the country’s vulnerability to tropical cyclones that develop in the Indian Ocean as well as storm surge flooding," says ESA.



"More than half of the population lives in low lying coastal areas, putting communities at risk. Inhambane Bay was dangerously close to where Cyclone Idai made landfall in 2019 causing widespread destruction to the country."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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Inhambane Bay in southeast Mozambique

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency </a>&nbsp;features the Kangerlussuaq Glacier, one of the largest tidewater outlet glaciers in Greenland. The glacier is located on the east coast of the Greenland ice sheet.



As human-induced climate change continues to drive up temperatures, global ice loss is accelerating at an alarming rate. ESA reports that, over the past decade alone, 3.5 trillion tons of ice have melted from the Greenland ice sheet. This is enough to cover the UK with meltwater 15 meters deep.



Based on satellite imagery, researchers determined that Kangerlussuaq entered a new phase of rapid retreat and acceleration in 2017. In their study, published in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2019.00123/full">Frontiers in Earth Science</a>,&nbsp; the experts report that the glacier's ice front is now at its most retreated position since the early 20th century.



"Given Kangerlussuaq’s previous impacts on both the magnitude and pattern of ice sheet wide mass loss, we predict that its new phase of retreat, acceleration and thinning will markedly enhance the south-east region’s contribution to increasing discharge from the ice sheet," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"More broadly, accurate forecasting of the ice sheet’s contribution to sea level rise will require a deeper understanding of, and responses to, these non-linear ice dynamic processes."



Video Credit: ESA



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



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Kangerlussuaq Glacier on the Greenland ice sheet

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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="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



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Ocean heat influences regional climate

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes the importance of monitoring the shape of the sea surface, which is constantly changing. These observations have many applications, such as ship routing, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-modem-ocean-is-a-tough-place-for-whales-to-survive/">ocean</a> current forecasting, and debris tracking.



"A project supported by the Discovery element of ESA’s Basic Activities recently investigated a new technique to measure sea surface topography very precisely," reports ESA.



"The technique involves looking at satellite navigation (GNSS) signals that have been reflected off of the sea surface at very low angles. At these so-called grazing angles, waves and surface roughness have very little impact on the reflection process; the sea surface acts as a very smooth mirror."



Estel Cardellach is the principal investigator at the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia, who first submitted the idea for the project.



“In a mirror-like reflection the phase of the signal can be tracked – it is continuous," said Cardellach. "Different surface heights result in different phase measurements. It gives a very precise measurement of the surface altitude at a few centimetres’ precision.”



The researchers developed a GNSS receiver and set up an experiment in the Balaeric Islands to collect signals from the receiver that were reflected off the sea surface. Ultimately, these signals will provide improved measurements of the shape of the sea surface.



Image/ 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

Monitoring the dynamic shape of the sea surface

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