#atmospheric-composition

#atmospheric-composition

We created Earth in Action to provide a lens into what's happening on our planet, as it happens. Whether it's something typical, like the current air temperature, or an extreme event like a major dust storm, we wanted to provide an opportunity for people to see them.

The weather was hot and sticky, and the acid sting of the smog had crept as far west as Beverly Hills. From the top of Mulholland Drive, you could see it leveled out all over the city like a ground mist.

When scientists applied a new model of human survivability that takes into account the body's ability to function and stay cool depending on age, they found all six events had seen non-survivable periods for older people who could not find shade.

'Forever' chemicals, which do not break down in the environment, have been detected in Antarctica, highlighting their widespread presence even in remote areas.

Microplastics are pervasive, found everywhere on Earth, from the Sahara Desert to patches of Arctic sea ice. Yet despite these plastic particles' ubiquity, scientists have struggled to determine exactly how many of them are in our atmosphere. Now a new estimate published in Nature suggests that land sources release about 600 quadrillion (600,000,000,000,000,000) microplastic particles into the atmosphere every year, about 20 times more than the number of particles contributed by oceans (about 26 quadrillion).

"So whenever people think about hot weather, they always talk about the temperature," he says. "There's two issues with that. First of all, most people don't realise that the temperature is measured in the shade. So if you're in direct solar radiation, the amount of heat stress you're exposed to is much greater as it will stress your body out a lot more."

With a major winter storm about to blast pretty much every US state east of the Rocky Mountains, many are scrambling to prepare for the cold, ice, and snow. And according to popular meteorology influencer Max Schuster, there's yet another winter-weather hazard to watch out for: trees exploding in the frigid air. On a viral post on X-formerly-Twitter, Schuster - who holds a meteorology degree

Warwick, N., Griffiths, P., Keeble, J., Archibald, A., & Pyle, J. Atmospheric implications of increased Hydrogen use. GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/atmospheric-implications-of-increased-hydrogen-use (2022).

The remaining question, though, was where all this methane was coming from in the first place. Throughout the pandemic, there was speculation that the surge might be caused by super-emitter events in the oil and gas sector, or perhaps a lack of maintenance on leaky infrastructure during lockdowns. But the new research suggests that the source of these emissions was not what many expected. The microbial surge

Many human activities - from improper disposal of waste to the degradation of car tyres - release small plastic particles, which have infiltrated the atmosphere, oceans and other ecosystems. These include nanoplastics - particles measuring less than 1 micrometre across - and microplastics, which range from 1 micrometre to around 5 millimetres. They've entered our bodies and brains, and scientists are still working to understand their effects on people's health.

In a high-growth scenario for the space industry, there could be as many as 2,000 launches per year, which her modeling shows could result in about 3 percent ozone loss, equal to the atmospheric impacts of a bad wildfire season in Australia. She said most of the damage comes from chlorine-rich solid rocket fuels and black carbon in the plumes. The black carbon could also warm parts of the stratosphere by about half-a-degree Celsius as it absorbs sunlight.

An extraordinarily warm and mostly sunny January has left the snowpack across California's Sierra Nevada far smaller than usual - 59% of average for this time of year, state water officials announced Friday as they held the season's second snow survey. "We are now about halfway through the typically wettest part of the year," said Andy Reising, manager of snow surveys for the California Department of Water Resources.