News by Subject Earth Science

2018 was the worst year for red tide in more than a decade. A new study reveals what made it so severe.

The Boeing 777 of Malaysia Airlines (MH370) has been missing for over five years. The extensive, costly, but unsuccessful search operations have stopped. A European research consortium under the leadership of GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre of Ocean Research Kiel has helped by providing insights on the most probable crash site based on debris from the aircraft. In a new study, scientists synthesize what they have learnt and propose strategies for optimizing future interdisciplinary work of this kind.

Research by a team of the world's leading oceanographers has proposed a new explanation for how the ocean absorbs and stores carbon, solving a riddle that has long puzzled scientists. It's well established that carbon in the atmosphere is absorbed by phytoplankton and transported to the ocean floor as the microscopic organisms die and sink by gravity through the water.

When it comes to understanding future climate, the south Asian summer monsoon offers a paradox. Most climate models predict that as human-caused global warming increases, monsoon rain and wind will become more intense -- but weather data collected in the region shows that rainfall has actually declined over the past 50 years.

On March 17, 2002, the satellite duo GRACE was launched to map the Earth's gravity field more precisely than ever before. The measurements make it possible to monitor the terrestrial water cycle, the mass balance of ice sheets and glaciers or changes in sea levels. This helps to better understand important trends in the global climate system. A review in the journal Nature Climate Change now presents the mission highlights in climate research.