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      See how aerosols loft through Earth’s sky

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      The sky abounds with aerosols, tiny particles with large sway over Earth’s temperature. A new NASA visualization reveals how these airborne particles swirl through the atmosphere.

      The agency’s Goddard Earth Observing System tracks major aerosol types — sulfates, black carbon, dust and sea salt. It combines satellite and ground-based observations with advanced computer simulations to show how aerosols can affect air quality and visibility far from their sources. See where they loft in this visualization spanning August 1 to September 14, 2024. More

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      The mystery of melting sea stars may finally be solved 

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      A mysterious disease has been turning sea stars into goo since 2013. Now, there’s a leading suspect behind the killings — a bacterium called Vibrio pectenicida, researchers report August 4 in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Knowing the identity of the killer could help scientists protect both captive and wild populations of sea stars.

      The disease, known as sea star wasting disease, is characterized by twisted arms, lesions and rapid death. One of the worst hit species is the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), which lost almost 91 percent of its population — over a billion individuals — to repeated outbreaks in 2015, 2018 and 2023. This decline has consequences for ocean ecosystems, as sunflower sea stars are predators that keep sea urchin populations in check. In their absence, sea urchins have mowed down kelp forests, which absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide and support fish, otters, sea lions and other animals.  More

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      A Midwest ‘megaflash’ is the longest lightning on record

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      A massive bolt of lightning that lit up the sky from Dallas to Kansas City, Mo., in October 2017 is officially the longest single flash ever recorded.

      A reanalysis of satellite data collected during the storm revealed that this megaflash spanned 829 kilometers and lasted 7.39 seconds, says Michael Peterson, an applied physicist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. A study describing the event was published online July 31 in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.   More

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      What to know about the extreme U.S. flooding — and ways to stay safe

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      July has washed across the United States with unusually destructive, deadly torrents of rain.

      In the first half of the month alone, historically heavy downpours sent rivers in Central Texas spilling far beyond their banks, causing at least 130 deaths. Rains prompted flash flooding across wildfire-scarred landscapes in New Mexico and flooded subway stations in New York City. Roadways in New Jersey turned into rivers, sweeping two people to their deaths as the floodwaters carried away their car. A tropical depression dumped up to 30 centimeters of rain in one day on parts of North Carolina, leading to at least six more deaths. More

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      Trees can’t get up and walk away, but forests can

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      An army of treelike creatures called Ents marches to war in the second The Lord of the Rings movie, The Two Towers, walking for miles through dark forests. Once they arrive at the fortress of the evil wizard Saruman, the Ents hurl giant boulders, climb over walls and even rip open a dam to wipe out their enemy.

      Mobile trees like the Ents are found throughout science fiction and fantasy worlds. The treelike alien Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy uses twiggy wings to fly. Trees called Evermean fight the main character Link in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom video game. And Harry Potter’s Whomping Willow — well, it whomps anyone who gets too close. More

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      Deep-sea mining could start soon — before we understand its risks

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      An underwater gold rush may be on the horizon — or rather, a rush to mine the seafloor for manganese, nickel, cobalt and other minerals used in electric vehicles, solar panels and more.

      Meanwhile, scientists and conservationists hope to pump the brakes on the prospect of deep-sea mining, warning that it may scar the seafloor for decades — and that there’s still far too little known about the lingering harm it might do to the deep ocean’s fragile ecosystems. More

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      Climate change could separate vanilla plants and their pollinators

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      Vanilla plants could have a future that’s not so sweet.

      Wild relatives of the vanilla plant — which could be essential if the original cash crop disappears — may someday live in different places than their usual pollinators, according to two climate change predictions. The result could be a major mismatch, with habitat overlap between one vanilla species and its pollinator decreasing by up to 90 percent, researchers report July 3 in Frontiers in Plant Science. More

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      Harmful heat doesn’t always come in waves

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      In recent weeks, extreme heat waves have broiled the United States, China and Europe. But scientists are warning of another hazardous form of heat: chronic heat. In places like Miami and Phoenix, temperatures can soar for months at a time without reaching heat wave levels, potentially contributing to health issues such as kidney disfunction, sleep apnea and depression. But too little research has focused on how these impacts may compound over months of exposure, University of Miami climate and health researcher Mayra Cruz and colleagues report in the June Environmental Research Climate.

      “It’s the family that lives with conditions that are just a little bit too hot all the time and no air conditioning,” says Victoria Turner, an urban planner at UCLA who was not involved in the study. “The mother is pregnant in hot conditions, their children go to bed without air conditioning and go to schools without air conditioning, and then that’s changing their developmental physiology.” More