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Category: climatology – Page 44

Muon Space tapped by Air Force for cloud characterization from space

WASHINGTON — The startup Muon Space announced Jan. 9 it will explore the use of climate-monitoring satellites to capture cloud characterization data for the U.S. Air Force.

The Mountain View, California-based company, founded in 2021, is developing small satellites to monitor Earth’s climate and ecosystems.

Under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 contract from the U.S. Air Force, Muon Space “will perform a feasibility study to determine the benefit of modifying its multispectral electro-optical infrared (EO/IR) instrument to support the Department of Defense’s cloud characterization observation capability,” the company said.

PIONEER Project: Enhancing Sea Wall Resilience in the Face of Climate-Driven Coastal Flooding

As climate change continues to ravage the planet, coastal cities are at the highest risk due to coastal flooding attributed to sea level rise. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, approximately 127 million people in the United States alone live in coastal counties, or almost 40 percent of the entire population. Therefore, steps to protect coastal communities are of the utmost importance to mitigate the long-term impacts of climate change.

Strengthening coastal defenses from rising seas levels is what a groundbreaking study known as the PIONEER project, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, hopes to address as scientists estimate coastal sea levels in the United States will experience the same sea level rise by 2050 that was experienced between 1920 and 2020, between 0.82 to 0.98 inches (0.25 to 0.30 meters).

“This is an interesting study because it combines, probably for the first time, the interactions for the effect of the water flooding on soils and, subsequently, on shoreline protective structures,” said Dr. Sherif Abdelaziz, who is an associate professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and one of many collaborators on the PIONEER project. “We will be able to assess how all these factors interact together so we can better design our shoreline protective structures to sustain the increasing intensity of waves and floods.”

Researchers develop strategy for adding keystone species to collapsing ecosystems

There are very few animals as important to our world as honeybees. There is, of course, the delicious honey they produce, but they are also essential in maintaining food security and the biodiversity that is threatened by climate change and becoming our strongest natural defense against it.

But with the planet facing a -induced loss of , what happens when honeybees die?

New Northeastern University research, published in Communications Biology, aims to help address the impending biodiversity crisis. The researchers say they have found a new strategy for restoring lost biodiversity by, essentially, identifying the equivalent of a honeybee in different ecosystems and reintroducing it into a particular collapsing ecosystem.

New theoretical framework unlocks mysteries of synchronization in turbulent dynamics

Weather forecasting is important for various sectors, including agriculture, military operations, and aviation, as well as for predicting natural disasters like tornados and cyclones. It relies on predicting the movement of air in the atmosphere, which is characterized by turbulent flows resulting in chaotic eddies of air.

However, accurately predicting this turbulence has remained significantly challenging owing to the lack of data on small-scale , which leads to the introduction of small initial errors. These errors can, in turn, lead to drastic changes in the flow states later, a phenomenon known as the chaotic butterfly effect.

To address the challenge of limited data on small-scale turbulent flows, a data-driven method known as Data Assimilation (DA) has been employed for forecasting. By integrating various sources of information, this approach enables the inference of details about small-scale turbulent eddies from their larger counterparts.

Is nuclear fusion the future of clean energy?

Fusion is a kind of nuclear power, which could revolutionise how clean energy is produced. As a new wave of experiments heats up, can fusion live up to the hype?

00:33 The future of green energy.
02:00 What is nuclear fusion and how does it work?
03:17 Is it achievable?

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Energy security gives climate-friendly nuclear-power plants a new appeal: https://econ.st/3QHgdd1

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Continue reading “Is nuclear fusion the future of clean energy?” | >

Wildflowers Adapting to Insect Apocalypse by Pollinating Themselves, Scientists Say

This may sound great at first glance, but researchers say it could signal the start of a “vicious cycle.”

The world is undergoing an insect apocalypse, with our buggy friends experiencing global mass population decreases at an estimated 2 percent yearly due to a woeful combination of climate change, pesticides, habitat loss, and other human-made ills.

How are flora — which often rely on insects for pollination — adapting to this massive change within the worldwide food chain? Researchers in France have now revealed one way: turning to self-pollination.

In a new study published in the journal New Phytologist, researchers have found that wildflowers in a patch of farm meadow in the Paris region have increasingly adapted to self-fertilization.

‘There has never been such big hype’: Why space tech is booming thanks to AI

The AI gold rush has brought many market opportunities to the space tech sector, said Zainab Qasim, investor at Seraphim.

“AI’s impact on existing tech used in space will no doubt become more prevalent over the coming years allowing faster research and development execution and smarter insights for end customers,” she said.

AI plays a “heavy hand” in the development of future climate and space technologies, said Jeff Crusey, partner at early-stage fund 7percent Ventures, adding that it has “dramatically improved the efficiency of models, improving logistics, fuel savings, and ultimately the environment.”