Harvard University researchers have resolved a conflict in estimates of how much the Earth will warm in response to a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Atmospheric aerosols are tiny particles that scatter and absorb sunlight but also influence climate indirectly through their role in cloud formation. One of the largest sources of aerosols is sea spray which is produced over the world’s oceans. Understanding how these particles take up water from the atmosphere, their so-called hygroscopicity, is important because it determines how much sunlight they reflect and how well they can form clouds.

Researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid suggest a new methodology to assess the environmental impact of the containers used for the collection of urban waste.

An inappropriate design of a container system might unnecessarily aggravate the impact on environment when collecting and transporting the urban waste. This is the major conclusion of a team of researchers from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid after carrying out a systematic evaluation process of the urban containerization system.

Researchers from James Cook University and the Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgiumsay unprecedented oceanographic conditions in 2016 produced the perfect storm of factors that lead to a mass coral bleaching.

JCU’s Professor Eric Wolanski said even in very warm years with a summer el Nino event, such as 1998, there was no massive coral bleaching in the Torres Strait and only small to moderate bleaching in the northern Great Barrier Reef.

In the past, climate scientists have tended to underestimate the risk of a co-occurrence of heatwave and drought. This is the conclusion of one of the first studies to examine compound climate extremes.

Two NASA satellites provided a look at the Northwestern Pacific Ocean's latest tropical storm from outside and inside. NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided an outside look at Nanmadol when it's maximum sustained winds peaked, and the GPM Core satellite provided an inside look at the rainfall within the storm.

Before consolidating into the fifth depression of the Northwestern Pacific Ocean's hurricane season, Nanmadol was a low pressure system designated System 99W. That low pressure area developed and was renamed Nanmadol on July 2.

JRC scientists have proposed a new approach for identifying the impacts of climate change and extreme weather on the variability of global and regional wheat production. The study analysed the effect of heat and water anomalies on crop losses over a 30-year period.

For upcoming climate model studies, scientists can use a new, significantly improved data set for solar forcing. An international science team led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC) in Granada (Spain) has now published the details of the new reconstruction of this reference dataset in the journal Geoscientific Model Development. A significantly enhanced influence of solar cycle effects is expected, particularly in the stratosphere.

The sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean shrinks rapidly with most ice loss observed during the summer months. A new study under participation of the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel recently published in the international peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports shows that this sea ice cover becomes increasingly seasonal. As the authors state the strongest changes in the Arctic can be expected to occur in the coming decade.

Ensuring that would-be carpoolers are riding with people they actually like could potentially decrease car use by nearly 60 per cent, research from a professor at the University of Waterloo has found.