National climate assessment offers new insights on community resilience and adaptation

National climate assessment offers new insights on community resilience and adaptation

Credit: CC0 Public Domain A major weather event such as a hurricane or wildfire can have lasting, visible impacts on communities, but the longer-term, compounding effects of a changing climate can be harder to see. In its contributions to the recently released Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) …

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Annual report shows fossil CO₂ emissions at record high in 2023

Annual report shows fossil CO₂ emissions at record high in 2023

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have risen again in 2023—reaching record levels, according to new research from the Global Carbon Project science team. The annual Global Carbon Budget projects fossil carbon dioxide (CO2 emissions of 36.8 billion metric tons in 2023, up 1.1% from 2022. The 2023 edition (the 18th …

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Interpreting the afterglow of a black hole’s breakfast

Interpreting the afterglow of a black hole’s breakfast

Residuals of our primary sample (gray shaded region) and BASS sources (white region) from the best-fitting mmFP, plotted as a function of the SMBH mass measurement method. “Dyn” refers to dynamical mass measurements, “Ⴓ★” to estimates from the MBH – Ⴓ★ relation of van den Bosch (2016), “Hα/Hβ” to the broad-line method and “Reverb” to …

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A Psychologist Makes Sense Of The ‘Butterfly Effect’ In Relationships

A Psychologist Makes Sense Of The ‘Butterfly Effect’ In Relationships

Just as the flap of a butterfly’s wings can theoretically influence the course of a hurricane, the … [+] tiny choices you make in your relationship can shape its destiny. getty The butterfly effect, a concept rooted in chaos theory and coined by meteorologist Edward Lorenz, underscores the profound interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events. It …

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Research shows that wildfires have erased two decades’ worth of air quality gains in western United States

Research shows that wildfires have erased two decades’ worth of air quality gains in western United States

Researchers at the University of Iowa have found wildfires originating in the western United States and Canada have erased air quality gains over the past two decades and caused an increase of premature deaths in fire-prone areas and downwind regions. This map shows the areas with the highest concentrations (in red) of black carbon, a …

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Collisions change how fast ions surf on plasma waves in fusion experiments and beyond

Collisions change how fast ions surf on plasma waves in fusion experiments and beyond

Schematic of fast ions (black spirals) interacting with plasma waves (color) in a fusion experiment. Credit: Steve Allen (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) and adapted by Mike Van Zeeland (General Atomics) Just like there are waves in the ocean, waves can also occur in an electrically charged gas called a plasma, made up of electrons and …

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Researchers urge caution with ‘net zero’ in climate policy

Researchers urge caution with ‘net zero’ in climate policy

by Ulrich von Lampe, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) gGmbH Carbon versus climate neutrality. a, Diagram showing net-zero CO2 emissions or carbon neutrality, whereby CO2 emissions are balanced by CO2 removals globally94. b, The additional climate effects of CO2 emissions and removals (co-emissions of non-CO2 GHGs and aerosol precursors, biogeophysical …

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Tracking undetectable space junk

Tracking undetectable space junk

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Satellite and spacecraft operators may finally be able to detect small pieces of debris orbiting Earth using an approach proposed by researchers from the University of Michigan. “Right now, we detect space debris by looking for objects that reflect light or radar signals,” said Nilton Renno, the principal investigator from the …

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