AGU's Eos

4 days ago | eos.org | Katherine Kornei

Mars’s current atmosphere is downright tenuous—conferring less than 1% the pressure of Earth’s—but there’s good evidence that it was substantially thicker in the past. Researchers have now directly observed atoms escaping in a hitherto unobserved way. That process, known as atmospheric sputtering, may have facilitated Mars’s transition from a watery planet to the arid world it is today, the team reported in Science Advances.

5 days ago | eos.org | Saima May Sidik

The impacts of space weather such as extreme solar winds and magnetic waves are not limited to outer space. Bursts of plasma emanating from the Sun, for instance, can temporarily intensify electric and magnetic fields on the ground when they arrive at Earth, causing geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) to flow into infrastructure such as powerlines, pipelines, and railways. GICs can cause widespread equipment failures, leading to blackouts and safety concerns.

2 weeks ago | eos.org | Katherine Kornei

This is an authorized translation of an Eos article. Esta es una traducción al español autorizada de un artículo de Eos. De vez en cuando, algunos árboles parecen necesitar una sacudida. Cuando es alcanzado por un rayo, el frondoso Dipteryx oleifera sufre daños mínimos, mientras que los árboles y enredaderas parásitas de las inmediaciones suelen marchitarse o morir por completo.

2 weeks ago | eos.org | Delaney Dryfoos

Mississippi River ships and barges carry over 500 million tons of cargo through the Southwest Pass shipping channel at the river’s end to reach major ports that handle 18% of U.S. waterborne commerce. For almost 100 years, levees and other human-made flood control structures have lined the banks of the river, obstructing its land-building silt, sand and clay from naturally rebuilding land along coastal Louisiana.

2 weeks ago | eos.org | Sarah Derouin

As the global climate continues to warm, fire seasons have intensified, and large-scale wildfires have become more frequent in many parts of the world. Factors such as vegetation type, land use patterns, and human activity all affect the likelihood of ignition, but wildfire proliferation ultimately depends on two factors: climate and fuel availability. Kampf et al.