Advances in Atmospheric Science recently published a special topic​ on solar energy meteorology, led by scientists from the Harbin Institute of Technology and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This issue consists of five invited articles featuring progress and challenges in satellite remote sensing, solar system modeling, photovoltaic power forecasting, thermal balance of solar panels and decarbonization strategy.

Recently, a research team led by Professor Shuxiao Wang from the School of Environment at Tsinghua University integrated a comprehensive global natural archive database of mercury (Hg) accumulation with modelled global atmospheric Hg deposition data. This integration revealed how global ecosystems respond to changes in atmospheric Hg input. The findings of this research were published in the National Science Review.

Climate change induced by human behaviors, or anthropogenic climate change, has been a hot topic for decades and is not going away. As with any problem, reviewing datasets from the past to analyze trends and garner information is one of the first steps towards a solution. Gross primary productivity, or GPP, is a key indicator of the overall health of an ecosystem and is the amount of CO₂ fixed by plants per unit of time and area. Researchers have come together to identify the drivers of change in GPP to gain a more thorough understanding of where the trends are likely to lead us and what efforts must be taken to stay in accordance with the Paris Agreement’s goals of mitigating global temperature increases by at least 2℃.

[Boston, MA—23 December, 2024]  Thousands of professionals and students will gather to share the latest science and address key issues in weather, water, and climate at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) in January. The world’s largest annual meeting focused on atmospheric and related sciences, AMS 2025 will be held 12–16 January, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, and will highlight the latest scientific and professional advances in areas from extreme weather to environmental health, from cloud physics to space weather and more.

Vector winds forecast by numerical weather prediction models still in need of optimization.

Researchers revealed significant limitations in current atmospheric models by comparing observed gravity waves with ERA5 simulations. ERA5 underestimated wave amplitudes and failed to capture a key wave packet. The findings highlight challenges in simulating small-scale phenomena.

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have discovered that around 15 days of dry weather can trigger the flowering of durian. Observations of 110 durian plants revealed that flowering occurred around 50 days after an approximately 15-day dry spell, independent of whether the plant was grafted or grown from a seed. The team’s work might not only impact the production of a valuable agricultural asset but deepen our understanding of tropical ecosystems.