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Archive for the ‘climatology’ category: Page 3

Jan 22, 2024

Particles Flutter as They Fall

Posted by in categories: climatology, particle physics

Experiments with small falling particles show that their orientations oscillate—which may help explain the settling of volcanic ash and the formation of snow.

Ice crystals and volcanic ash fall through the atmosphere in a complicated way that has been hard to capture experimentally. A new lab experiment has photographed the descent of nonspherical plastic particles that were fabricated to resemble natural particles [1]. The images reveal oscillations in the particles’ orientations as they flitter downward. The results could help in modeling the formation of snow and the transparency of clouds, which is important for weather and climate models.

In order to study how micrometer-sized particles fall in the atmosphere, researchers must address the challenge of zooming in on the particles as they pass quickly in front of the camera. “The problem is that your field of view is so small that you have a very limited chance to see the particle for a long trajectory,” says Gholamhossein Bagheri from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Germany. Previously, researchers tried to solve this problem by performing experiments in water with easier-to-view centimeter-sized particles. The water slows the particle motion, but the ratio of particle size to fluid viscosity—which can be characterized by the dimensionless Reynolds number—remains roughly the same for larger, waterborne particles as for smaller, airborne particles. This correspondence between the two situations implies that water-based experiments can offer information about the speed and orientation of falling particles in the atmosphere.

Jan 21, 2024

How the Mighty Heat Pump Is Helping (but Not Solving) EVs’ Cold Weather Problem

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

But in the past few years, a climate change hero technology has made its way into electric vehicles, one that has improved—but not solved—their cold weather issues: heat pumps. Heat pumps transfer heat from outside the car to help keep passengers warm, and so avoid sucking too much power away from the battery. And yes, heat pumps can still bring warm air into the car even if it’s freezing outside, albeit with mixed success. As counterintuitive as it sounds, there is still a good amount of heat that can be drawn from air that’s, say, 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

Today, heat pumps come in many, but not all, new electric vehicles. Teslas have come with a proprietary heat pump tech since 2021. Jaguar’s I-Pace has one built in, as does BMW’s latest i-series cars, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5, Audi’s newest e-Tron, and Kia’s new electrified flagship, the EV9.

“Any electric vehicle that comes out right now and doesn’t have a heat pump is a dinosaur already,” says John Kelly, an automotive technology professor and instructor focusing on hybrid and electric vehicle technology at Weber State University.

Jan 21, 2024

25 holiday Power Facts about energy and climate

Posted by in category: climatology

If this year’s holiday discussions veer toward energy and climate issues, I’ve got you covered. Here are 25 facts that will make any honest person think twice about today’s anti-fossil-fuel narrative.

Jan 19, 2024

OpenDAC: The OpenDAC project is a collaborative research project between Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) at Meta and Georgia Tech

Posted by in categories: climatology, robotics/AI, space, sustainability

The OpenDAC project is a collaborative research project between Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) at Meta and Georgia Tech, aimed at significantly reducing the cost of Direct Air Capture (DAC).

Direct Air Capture (DAC) involves directly capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and has been widely recognized as a crucial tool in combating climate change. Despite its potential, the broad implementation of DAC has been impeded by high capture costs. Central to overcoming this hurdle is the discovery of novel sorbents — materials that pull carbon dioxide from the air. Discovering new sorbents holds the key to reducing capture costs and scaling DAC to meaningfully impact global carbon emissions.

The DAC space is growing rapidly with many companies entering the space. To engage the broader research community as well as the budding DAC industry, we have released the OpenDAC 2023 (ODAC23) dataset to train ML models. ODAC23 contains nearly 40M DFT calculations from 170K DFT relaxations involving Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) with carbon dioxide and water adsorbates. We have also released baseline ML models trained on this dataset.

Jan 19, 2024

Scientists Discover Alarming Evidence Global Warning Is Accelerating

Posted by in categories: climatology, habitats

The men were gathered to watch the football game at a friend’s house.

Jan 19, 2024

New Findings Revolutionize What We Understand About America’s Forests

Posted by in categories: climatology, sustainability

Forests serve as crucial players in the fight against climate change due to their ability to absorb and store carbon. A recent study, with contributions from researchers at Northern Arizona University, is poised to revolutionize forest conservation strategies across the United States. This study introduces innovative and precise models designed to more accurately estimate and forecast the carbon storage capacity of forests.

The U.S. Forest Service, along with an impressive list of research partners including those at Northern Arizona University, has introduced new National Scale Volume Biomass (NSVB) models that provide a consistent and scientifically accurate method to predict tree volume, biomass (a term that describes the collective mass of the woody parts of trees) and carbon content nationwide.

Jan 18, 2024

Science in 2024: what to expect this year

Posted by in categories: climatology, neuroscience, particle physics, science

In this episode, reporter Miryam Naddaf joins us to talk about the big science events to look out for in 2024. We’ll hear about the mass of the neutrino, the neural basis of consciousness and the climate lawsuits at the Hague, to name but a few.


Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 6 January 2023.

Jan 18, 2024

The Iron-60 Enigma: Decoding Cosmic Explosions on Earth

Posted by in categories: biological, climatology, particle physics, space

When large stars or celestial bodies explode near Earth, their debris can reach our solar system. Evidence of these cosmic events is found on Earth and the Moon, detectable through accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). An overview of this exciting research was recently published in the scientific journal Annual Review of Nuclear and Particle Science by Prof. Anton Wallner of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), who soon plans to decisively advance this promising branch of research with the new, ultrasensitive AMS facility “HAMSTER.”

In their paper, HZDR physicist Anton Wallner and colleague Prof. Brian D. Fields from the University of Illinois in Urbana, USA, provide an overview of near-Earth cosmic explosions with a particular focus on events that occurred three and, respectively, seven million years ago.

“Fortunately, these events were still far enough away, so they probably did not significantly impact the Earth’s climate or have major effects on the biosphere. However, things get really uncomfortable when cosmic explosions occur at a distance of 30 light-years or less,” Wallner explains. Converted into the astrophysical unit parsec, this corresponds to less than eight to ten parsecs.

Jan 17, 2024

Firm enables 500kW ultrafast wireless EV charging, powers in 15 mins

Posted by in categories: climatology, futurism

Revolutionizing electric truck charging, WAVE Charging’s 500kW system achieves a full charge in less than 15 minutes, addressing cold climate challenges.


Wave Charging offers 15-minute charging with 500kW ultra-fast wireless charging, reshaping the future of eco-friendly logistics.

Jan 16, 2024

Experts Confirm: Icelandic Faultline Has Awakened After 800 Years

Posted by in category: climatology

A volcanic eruption that has engulfed homes in an Icelandic fishing port confirms that a long-dormant faultline running under the country has woken up, threatening to belch out lava with little warning for years to come, an expert warned on Tuesday.

Glowing lava swallowed several homes on Sunday at the edge of the town of Grindavik, southwest of the capital Reykjavik.

The fishing town was mostly evacuated due to threat of an eruption last month and the most recent volcanic activity has since eased, authorities in the North Atlantic nation said on Monday.

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