Environment

One of the largest coal-fired power plants in the U.S. Southwest would undergo a $1.4 billion overhaul as part of a proposal to keep the plant operating for at least another decade while meeting stricter environmental requirements aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes …

With months still to go in California’s fire season, the state has already shattered records for the amount of land scorched in a single year—more than 4 million acres to date, with one blaze alone surpassing the 1 million acre mark. Five of the 10 largest wildfires in state history …

On Oct. 5, 2020, NASA’s Terra satellite provided a visible image of Tropical Storm Chan-hom several hundred miles northwest of Guam (lower right). Credit: NASA Worldview, Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS). NASA’s Terra satellite obtained visible imagery of Tropical Storm Chan-hom as it continued moving though the …

On Oct. 5 at 3:05 a.m. EDT (0705 UTC) NASA’s Aqua satellite analyzed Tropical Storm Delta using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument. AIRS found coldest cloud top temperatures as cold as or colder than (purple) minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius) around the center of circulation. …

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The depletion of groundwater sources in parts of the United States High Plains is so severe that peak grain production in some states has already been passed, according to new research. An international team of scientists, including experts from the University of Birmingham, has extended and …

The staggering scale of California’s wildfires reached another milestone Monday: A single fire surpassed 1 million acres. The new mark for the August Complex in the Coast Range between San Francisco and the Oregon border came a day after the total area of land burned by California wildfires this year …

Emissions map of entire U.S. landscape at high space- and time-resolution with details on economic sector, fuel and combustion process. Credit: Northern Arizona University With intense wildfires in the western U.S. and frequent, intense hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the nation is again affected by extreme weather-related events resulting …

A team of soil scientists from RUDN University organized a summer school to study urban soils in 5 climatic zones. Students from Germany, Russia, China, and the USA spent two weeks analyzing the state of soils and vegetation in cities and towns all the way from the Barents to the …

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Horseweed is considered one of the most troublesome weeds in the United States and Canada—able to produce devastating losses in both corn and soybean yields when left uncontrolled. Populations of herbicide-resistant horseweed are now found in 18 countries, and many are resistant to multiple herbicide sites …

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Dust blowing onto high mountains in the western Himalayas is a bigger factor than previously thought in hastening the melting of snow there, researchers show in a study published Oct. 5 in Nature Climate Change. That’s because dust—lots of it in the Himalayas—absorbs sunlight, heating the …