Venus’ mysterious night side revealed

Planet Venus through an earthly telescope, showing us both its day and night sides, via Damian Peach’s View of the Solar System.

The planet Venus has the slowest rotation of any major planet in our solar sytsem. It spins only once every 243 Earth days. So “night” or “day” on the planet last a very long time, and, as you might imagine, the charcteristics of Venus’ night and days side undergo differences, as a result. The European Space Agency (ESA) said late last week (September 14, 2017) that scientists have used data from the Venus Express spacecraft – which arrived at Venus in April 2006 and orbited the planet until late 2014 – to characterize the wind and upper cloud patterns on the night side of Venus for the first time. They said the results were “surprising.”

The study showed that the atmosphere on Venus’ night side exhibits unexpected and previously unseen cloud types, morphologies (structures), and dynamics – some of which appear to be connected to features on the planet’s surface. Javier Peralta of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan, is lead author of the new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy, said in a statement:

This is the first time we’ve been able to characterise how the atmosphere circulates on the night side of Venus on a global scale. While the atmospheric circulation on the planet’s dayside has been extensively explored, there was still much to discover about the night side. We found that the cloud patterns there are different to those on the dayside, and influenced by Venus’ topography.

Since the 1960s, it’s been known that the winds on Venus blow faster than the planet rotates. Scientists call this super-rotation. This mosaic illustrates the atmospheric super-rotation at the upper clouds of Venus. While the super-rotation is present in both day and night sides of Venus, it seems more uniform in the day, while in the night this seems to become more irregular and unpredictable. Image via ESA/ S. Naito/ R. Hueso and J. Peralta.

Venus’ atmosphere is dominated by strong winds that whirl around the planet far faster than Venus itself rotates. This phenomenon, known as super-rotation, sees Venusian winds rotating up to 60 times faster than the planet below, pushing and dragging along clouds within the atmosphere as they go. These clouds travel fastest at the upper cloud level, about 40 miles (65 km) above the surface. Peralta explained:

We’ve spent decades studying these super-rotating winds by tracking how the upper clouds move on Venus’ dayside–these are clearly visible in images acquired in ultraviolet light. However, our models of Venus remain unable to reproduce this super-rotation, which clearly indicates that we might be missing some pieces of this puzzle.

We focused on the night side because it had been poorly explored; we can see the upper clouds on the planet’s night side via their thermal emission, but it’s been difficult to observe them properly because the contrast in our infrared images was too low to pick up enough detail.

The team used the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft to observe the clouds in the infrared. It gathered a ‘cube’ of hundreds of images of Venus acquired simultaneously at different wavelengths. This allowed the team to combine numerous images to improve the visibility of the clouds, and see them at unprecedented quality.

The VIRTIS images thus reveal phenomena on Venus’ night side that have never before been seen on the dayside.

Mysterious fast filaments seen on the night side upper clouds of Venus. Image via ESA Venus Express/ S. Naito/ R. Hueso and J. Peralta.

Popular models for how the atmospheres of planets – like Venus or Earth – behave and circulate are the Global Circulation Models (GCMs). They predict super-rotation to occur in much the same way on Venus’ night side as on its dayside. However, the new research by Peralta and his colleagues contradicts these models.

Instead, the super-rotation seems to be more irregular and chaotic on the night side, according to these scientists. They say that night side upper clouds form different shapes and morphologies than those found elsewhere on Venus. They found large, wavy, patchy, irregular, and filament-like patterns, many of which are unseen in dayside images.

What’s more, the night side clouds are dominated by unmoving phenomena known as standing waves, or stationary waves. Co-author Agustin Sánchez-Lavega of University del País Vasco in Bilbao, Spain, explained:

Stationary waves are probably what we’d call gravity waves. In other words, they are rising waves generated lower in Venus’ atmosphere that appear not to move with the planet’s rotation. These waves are concentrated over steep, mountainous areas of Venus; this suggests that the planet’s topography is affecting what happens way up above in the clouds.

Stationary waves in clouds on Venus. Image via ESA/ VIRTIS/ J. Peralta and R. Hueso.

Stationary waves in clouds on Venus. Image via ESA/ VIRTIS/ J. Peralta and R. Hueso.

Peralta said:

It was an exciting moment when we realised that some of the cloud features in the VIRTIS images didn’t move along with the atmosphere. We had a long debate about whether the results were real–until we realised that another team, led by co-author Dr. Kouyama, had also independently discovered stationary clouds on the night side using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii! Our findings were confirmed when JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft was inserted into orbit around Venus and immediately spotted the biggest stationary wave ever observed in the solar system on Venus’ dayside.

These researchers said that the effect of a planet’s surface features on its atmospheric circulation remains unclear among climate modelers. Håkan Svedhem, ESA Project Scientist for Venus Express, commented:

This study challenges our current understanding of climate modeling and, specifically, the super-rotation, which is a key phenomenon seen at Venus.

Read more about this study from ESA

These panels show examples of new types of cloud morphology discovered on the night side of Venus thanks to ESA’s Venus Express and NASA’s infrared telescope IRTF. Top row, from left to right: stationary waves observed by Venus Express, “net” patterns observed with IRTF. Bottom row: mysterious filaments (left) and dynamical instabilities (right) observed by Venus Express. Image via ESA/ VIRTIS/ J. Peralta and R. Hueso.

Bottom line: Researchers using Venus Express spacecraft data report “stationary waves” and slowly moving features in the planet’s upper clouds, during Venus’ long and mysterious night.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2jAappo

Planet Venus through an earthly telescope, showing us both its day and night sides, via Damian Peach’s View of the Solar System.

The planet Venus has the slowest rotation of any major planet in our solar sytsem. It spins only once every 243 Earth days. So “night” or “day” on the planet last a very long time, and, as you might imagine, the charcteristics of Venus’ night and days side undergo differences, as a result. The European Space Agency (ESA) said late last week (September 14, 2017) that scientists have used data from the Venus Express spacecraft – which arrived at Venus in April 2006 and orbited the planet until late 2014 – to characterize the wind and upper cloud patterns on the night side of Venus for the first time. They said the results were “surprising.”

The study showed that the atmosphere on Venus’ night side exhibits unexpected and previously unseen cloud types, morphologies (structures), and dynamics – some of which appear to be connected to features on the planet’s surface. Javier Peralta of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan, is lead author of the new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Astronomy, said in a statement:

This is the first time we’ve been able to characterise how the atmosphere circulates on the night side of Venus on a global scale. While the atmospheric circulation on the planet’s dayside has been extensively explored, there was still much to discover about the night side. We found that the cloud patterns there are different to those on the dayside, and influenced by Venus’ topography.

Since the 1960s, it’s been known that the winds on Venus blow faster than the planet rotates. Scientists call this super-rotation. This mosaic illustrates the atmospheric super-rotation at the upper clouds of Venus. While the super-rotation is present in both day and night sides of Venus, it seems more uniform in the day, while in the night this seems to become more irregular and unpredictable. Image via ESA/ S. Naito/ R. Hueso and J. Peralta.

Venus’ atmosphere is dominated by strong winds that whirl around the planet far faster than Venus itself rotates. This phenomenon, known as super-rotation, sees Venusian winds rotating up to 60 times faster than the planet below, pushing and dragging along clouds within the atmosphere as they go. These clouds travel fastest at the upper cloud level, about 40 miles (65 km) above the surface. Peralta explained:

We’ve spent decades studying these super-rotating winds by tracking how the upper clouds move on Venus’ dayside–these are clearly visible in images acquired in ultraviolet light. However, our models of Venus remain unable to reproduce this super-rotation, which clearly indicates that we might be missing some pieces of this puzzle.

We focused on the night side because it had been poorly explored; we can see the upper clouds on the planet’s night side via their thermal emission, but it’s been difficult to observe them properly because the contrast in our infrared images was too low to pick up enough detail.

The team used the Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) on ESA’s Venus Express spacecraft to observe the clouds in the infrared. It gathered a ‘cube’ of hundreds of images of Venus acquired simultaneously at different wavelengths. This allowed the team to combine numerous images to improve the visibility of the clouds, and see them at unprecedented quality.

The VIRTIS images thus reveal phenomena on Venus’ night side that have never before been seen on the dayside.

Mysterious fast filaments seen on the night side upper clouds of Venus. Image via ESA Venus Express/ S. Naito/ R. Hueso and J. Peralta.

Popular models for how the atmospheres of planets – like Venus or Earth – behave and circulate are the Global Circulation Models (GCMs). They predict super-rotation to occur in much the same way on Venus’ night side as on its dayside. However, the new research by Peralta and his colleagues contradicts these models.

Instead, the super-rotation seems to be more irregular and chaotic on the night side, according to these scientists. They say that night side upper clouds form different shapes and morphologies than those found elsewhere on Venus. They found large, wavy, patchy, irregular, and filament-like patterns, many of which are unseen in dayside images.

What’s more, the night side clouds are dominated by unmoving phenomena known as standing waves, or stationary waves. Co-author Agustin Sánchez-Lavega of University del País Vasco in Bilbao, Spain, explained:

Stationary waves are probably what we’d call gravity waves. In other words, they are rising waves generated lower in Venus’ atmosphere that appear not to move with the planet’s rotation. These waves are concentrated over steep, mountainous areas of Venus; this suggests that the planet’s topography is affecting what happens way up above in the clouds.

Stationary waves in clouds on Venus. Image via ESA/ VIRTIS/ J. Peralta and R. Hueso.

Stationary waves in clouds on Venus. Image via ESA/ VIRTIS/ J. Peralta and R. Hueso.

Peralta said:

It was an exciting moment when we realised that some of the cloud features in the VIRTIS images didn’t move along with the atmosphere. We had a long debate about whether the results were real–until we realised that another team, led by co-author Dr. Kouyama, had also independently discovered stationary clouds on the night side using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii! Our findings were confirmed when JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft was inserted into orbit around Venus and immediately spotted the biggest stationary wave ever observed in the solar system on Venus’ dayside.

These researchers said that the effect of a planet’s surface features on its atmospheric circulation remains unclear among climate modelers. Håkan Svedhem, ESA Project Scientist for Venus Express, commented:

This study challenges our current understanding of climate modeling and, specifically, the super-rotation, which is a key phenomenon seen at Venus.

Read more about this study from ESA

These panels show examples of new types of cloud morphology discovered on the night side of Venus thanks to ESA’s Venus Express and NASA’s infrared telescope IRTF. Top row, from left to right: stationary waves observed by Venus Express, “net” patterns observed with IRTF. Bottom row: mysterious filaments (left) and dynamical instabilities (right) observed by Venus Express. Image via ESA/ VIRTIS/ J. Peralta and R. Hueso.

Bottom line: Researchers using Venus Express spacecraft data report “stationary waves” and slowly moving features in the planet’s upper clouds, during Venus’ long and mysterious night.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2jAappo

Outer space

“Outer Space” by Manuel Dietrich Photography.

Manuel Dietrich, who lives in a small village in western Germany, posted this photo at EarthSky Facebook this week. He wrote:

This shot was entirely edited with one of my presets. Go check them out if you haven’t done so yet and don’t forget to use the hashtag #MDPfeature on Instagram for a chance to be featured.

Visit Matt’s Instagram page

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2wiLdcL

“Outer Space” by Manuel Dietrich Photography.

Manuel Dietrich, who lives in a small village in western Germany, posted this photo at EarthSky Facebook this week. He wrote:

This shot was entirely edited with one of my presets. Go check them out if you haven’t done so yet and don’t forget to use the hashtag #MDPfeature on Instagram for a chance to be featured.

Visit Matt’s Instagram page

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2wiLdcL

News digest – HRT, body fat, chemo-killing bacteria and… tattoos?

• Two studies show that targeted drugs and immunotherapy used for advanced melanomas could help people with earlier stage disease too. Both treatment options, an immunotherapy drug and a combination of targeted drugs, may reduce the risk that a person’s melanoma will come back after surgery. We covered this, as did the Mail Online and The Sun.
• The Guardian covered a study that suggests that people who move every half an hour during long periods of sitting down have a lower risk of dying. This study wasn’t perfect though, and there are still questions to answer around how being sedentary might increase the risk of dying.
• Scottish head and neck cancer patients will be the first in the UK to receive an immunotherapy treatment, called nivolumab (Opdivo), on the NHS, says the Scotsman. Evidence suggests that double the number of patients treated with the drug were still alive after one year, compared to those who had standard chemotherapy.

Number of the week

1,300

The estimated number of patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer, in Scotland, each year.

• Hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer. But a misleading report from the Mail Online implied that HRT comes without risks. The study this report focused on suggested that women using HRT aren’t more likely to die from cancer than women who don’t use HRT, not that HRT doesn’t increase the risk of certain cancers. The study also didn’t take into account improvements in treatments for breast cancers or early diagnosis, which could both affect survival.
• Where fat is found on a woman’s body may influence their cancer risk, according to a new Danish study presented at a conference last week. The Independent reports on the unpublished findings that women with ‘apple shaped’ figures were more likely to develop lung and bowel cancer.  For more information on how bodyweight can affect cancer risk, head here.
• Oxford University scientists found that family doctors were almost twice as likely to offer stop smoking advice to people diagnosed with coronary heart disease than to lung cancer patients, according to the Telegraph. This is despite both being smoking-related conditions.
• A type of bacteria has the potential to stop a particular type of chemotherapy from working, according to lab research covered by New Scientist. Researchers found the bacteria can destroy a cancer drug called gemcitabine used to treat lung, pancreatic and breast cancers in lab tests. Further research will be needed to see if these findings apply to more chemo drugs, and if the bacteria destroy the drugs in patients.
  

  And finally…

• Getting ‘inked’ may give you cancer, according to the Mail Online. The misleading concerns are tied to a chemical called titanium dioxide, which is added to tattoo ink to create certain colours. Titanium dioxide has previously been linked to cancer in animals, but there’s no good evidence it causes cancer in people. So if you have a tattoo, don’t worry. This in-depth summary from NHS Choices, which called the Mail’s claims “entirely unsupported”, has everything you need to know.

Gabi

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog http://ift.tt/2jy4QHX

• Two studies show that targeted drugs and immunotherapy used for advanced melanomas could help people with earlier stage disease too. Both treatment options, an immunotherapy drug and a combination of targeted drugs, may reduce the risk that a person’s melanoma will come back after surgery. We covered this, as did the Mail Online and The Sun.
• The Guardian covered a study that suggests that people who move every half an hour during long periods of sitting down have a lower risk of dying. This study wasn’t perfect though, and there are still questions to answer around how being sedentary might increase the risk of dying.
• Scottish head and neck cancer patients will be the first in the UK to receive an immunotherapy treatment, called nivolumab (Opdivo), on the NHS, says the Scotsman. Evidence suggests that double the number of patients treated with the drug were still alive after one year, compared to those who had standard chemotherapy.

Number of the week

1,300

The estimated number of patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer, in Scotland, each year.

• Hormone replacement therapy increases the risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer. But a misleading report from the Mail Online implied that HRT comes without risks. The study this report focused on suggested that women using HRT aren’t more likely to die from cancer than women who don’t use HRT, not that HRT doesn’t increase the risk of certain cancers. The study also didn’t take into account improvements in treatments for breast cancers or early diagnosis, which could both affect survival.
• Where fat is found on a woman’s body may influence their cancer risk, according to a new Danish study presented at a conference last week. The Independent reports on the unpublished findings that women with ‘apple shaped’ figures were more likely to develop lung and bowel cancer.  For more information on how bodyweight can affect cancer risk, head here.
• Oxford University scientists found that family doctors were almost twice as likely to offer stop smoking advice to people diagnosed with coronary heart disease than to lung cancer patients, according to the Telegraph. This is despite both being smoking-related conditions.
• A type of bacteria has the potential to stop a particular type of chemotherapy from working, according to lab research covered by New Scientist. Researchers found the bacteria can destroy a cancer drug called gemcitabine used to treat lung, pancreatic and breast cancers in lab tests. Further research will be needed to see if these findings apply to more chemo drugs, and if the bacteria destroy the drugs in patients.
  

  And finally…

• Getting ‘inked’ may give you cancer, according to the Mail Online. The misleading concerns are tied to a chemical called titanium dioxide, which is added to tattoo ink to create certain colours. Titanium dioxide has previously been linked to cancer in animals, but there’s no good evidence it causes cancer in people. So if you have a tattoo, don’t worry. This in-depth summary from NHS Choices, which called the Mail’s claims “entirely unsupported”, has everything you need to know.

Gabi

from Cancer Research UK – Science blog http://ift.tt/2jy4QHX

Moon and Venus next 2 mornings

Before dawn in the next two mornings – September 17 and 18, 2017 – the waning crescent moon and dazzling planet Venus pair up in the east before sunrise. Given clear skies, it’ll be hard to miss them. The moon and Venus rank as the second-brightest and third-brightest celestial bodies, respectively, after the sun.

Some sharped-eye people might even see the moon and Venus after sunrise.

If you get up before dawn, or about 120 to 90 minutes before the sun, you should have little trouble spotting the star Regulus a short hop below Venus. Although Regulus is a 1st-magnitude star, it pales next to Venus, which outshines this star by a good hundredfold. Watch for Venus to pass about 0.5^o of Regulus on the mornings of September 19 and 20. For reference, 0.5^o is the equivalent of one moon diameter.

Given an unobstructed horizon in the direction of sunrise, people in the Northern Hemisphere also have a good chance of spotting the planet Mercury, the solar system’s innermost planet, near the sunrise point on the horizon. As the predawn darkness is first giving way to dawn, look for Mercury more or less on line with the moon and Venus. Mercury is quite bright – some 8 times brighter than Regulus – so it may be visible even after Regulus fades. Binoculars always come in handy for your Mercury search, especially if the view is murky near your horizon.

A third planet, red Mars, is also up before the sun. It lodges very close to Mercury on the sky’s dome, but is considerably fainter than Mercury. In fact, Mercury outshines Mars by about 12 times. We’ve been seeing photos of the pair, so telephoto lenses are catching them. Lacking a camera, you might also try your binoculars. They might let you to see Mars, and, if so, Mars and Mercury may well be in the same binocular field of view.

Click here for recommended almanacs. An almanac can help you find the rising times of the sun, moon and planets in your sky.

By the way, if you live in Indonesia, Australia or New Zealand, the moon will occult (cover over) Venus during the daylight hours on September 18.

Click here for more information about the occultation of Venus.

Here’s who will see the daylight occultation of Venus on September 18, 2017. Click here for more info.

Bottom line: The moon and Venus will be spectacular on the mornings of September 17 and 18, 2017. Given clear skies and an unobstructed eastern horizon, you might also catch Mercury and Mars below the moon and Venus. Good luck!

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2jyspQZ

Before dawn in the next two mornings – September 17 and 18, 2017 – the waning crescent moon and dazzling planet Venus pair up in the east before sunrise. Given clear skies, it’ll be hard to miss them. The moon and Venus rank as the second-brightest and third-brightest celestial bodies, respectively, after the sun.

Some sharped-eye people might even see the moon and Venus after sunrise.

If you get up before dawn, or about 120 to 90 minutes before the sun, you should have little trouble spotting the star Regulus a short hop below Venus. Although Regulus is a 1st-magnitude star, it pales next to Venus, which outshines this star by a good hundredfold. Watch for Venus to pass about 0.5^o of Regulus on the mornings of September 19 and 20. For reference, 0.5^o is the equivalent of one moon diameter.

Given an unobstructed horizon in the direction of sunrise, people in the Northern Hemisphere also have a good chance of spotting the planet Mercury, the solar system’s innermost planet, near the sunrise point on the horizon. As the predawn darkness is first giving way to dawn, look for Mercury more or less on line with the moon and Venus. Mercury is quite bright – some 8 times brighter than Regulus – so it may be visible even after Regulus fades. Binoculars always come in handy for your Mercury search, especially if the view is murky near your horizon.

A third planet, red Mars, is also up before the sun. It lodges very close to Mercury on the sky’s dome, but is considerably fainter than Mercury. In fact, Mercury outshines Mars by about 12 times. We’ve been seeing photos of the pair, so telephoto lenses are catching them. Lacking a camera, you might also try your binoculars. They might let you to see Mars, and, if so, Mars and Mercury may well be in the same binocular field of view.

Click here for recommended almanacs. An almanac can help you find the rising times of the sun, moon and planets in your sky.

By the way, if you live in Indonesia, Australia or New Zealand, the moon will occult (cover over) Venus during the daylight hours on September 18.

Click here for more information about the occultation of Venus.

Here’s who will see the daylight occultation of Venus on September 18, 2017. Click here for more info.

Bottom line: The moon and Venus will be spectacular on the mornings of September 17 and 18, 2017. Given clear skies and an unobstructed eastern horizon, you might also catch Mercury and Mars below the moon and Venus. Good luck!

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2jyspQZ

New research, September 4-10, 2017

A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.

Climate change

1. State of the Climate in 2016 See also: A Look at 2016: Takeaway Points from the State of the Climate Supplement

2. The rise in global atmospheric CO2, surface temperature, and sea level from emissions traced to major carbon producers

"Emissions traced to these 90 carbon producers contributed ∼57% of the observed rise in atmospheric CO₂, ∼42–50% of the rise in global mean surface temperature (GMST), and ∼26–32% of global sea level (GSL) rise over the historical period and ∼43% (atmospheric CO₂), ∼29–35% (GMST), and ∼11–14% (GSL) since 1980 (based on best-estimate parameters and accounting for uncertainty arising from the lack of data on aerosol forcings traced to producers)."

3. Optimal management of the flooding risk caused by the joint occurrence of extreme rainfall and high tide level in a coastal city

"Heavy rain is the main disaster-causing factor in inland areas, while high tide level is the main disaster-causing factor in island areas. For the area whose main disaster-causing factor is heavy rain, water storage projects could effectively reduce flooding. Meanwhile, pumps are economical choices for the area where tide level is the main disaster-causing factor."

4. Extreme tropical cyclone activities in the southern Pacific Ocean

"Between 1980 and 2016, the number of extreme cyclones did not show any tendency to increase."

5. Significant aerosol influence on the recent decadal decrease in tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific

"Here, we show that past changes in sulphate aerosol emissions contributed approximately 60 % of the observed decreasing trends in TC genesis frequency in the southeastern WNP for 1992–2011, using multiple simulations by a global climate model."

6. Emerging role of wetland methane emissions in driving 21st century climate change

"Our results reveal an emerging contribution of global wetland CH₄ emissions due to processes mainly related to the sensitivity of methane emissions to temperature and changing global wetland area. We highlight that climate-change and wetland CH₄ feedbacks to radiative forcing are an important component of climate change and should be represented in policies aiming to mitigate global warming below 2°C."

7. Recent climatic changes and wetland expansion turned Tibet into a net CH4 source

"The results showed that the drying up of wetlands from the 1980s to 1990s completely counteracted the rising CH₄ emission rates (0.75 ± 0.18 and 0.77 ± 0.19 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively). However, recent precipitation-induced wetland expansion enhanced emissions to 0.96 ± 0.21 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ in the 2000s, which exceeded the rate of CH₄ uptake (0.74 ± 0.06 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ in the 2000s)."

8. Increasing shortwave absorption over the Arctic Ocean is not balanced by trends in the Antarctic

"On the basis of a new, consistent, long-term observational satellite dataset we show that, despite the observed increase of sea ice extent in the Antarctic, absorption of solar shortwave radiation in the Southern Ocean poleward of 60° latitude is not decreasing. The observations hence show that the small increase in Antarctic sea ice extent does not compensate for the combined effect of retreating Arctic sea ice and changes in cloud cover, which both result in a total increase in solar shortwave energy deposited into the polar oceans."

9. Amplified summer warming in Europe–West Asia and Northeast Asia after the mid-1990s

"We identify a nonuniform warming pattern in summer around the mid-1990s over the Eurasian continent, with a predominant amplified warming over Europe–West Asia and Northeast Asia but much weaker warming over Central Asia. It is found that the nonuniform warming concurs with both the phase shift of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) and the decadal change in the Silk Road Pattern (SRP), which is an upper-tropospheric teleconnection pattern over the Eurasian continent during summer."

10. Sensitivity of global warming to carbon emissions: effects of heat and carbon uptake in a suite of Earth system models

11. An Extreme Value Model for United States Hail Size

12. Application of a two-step approach for mapping ice thickness to various glacier types on Svalbard

13. North American wintertime temperature anomalies: the role of El Niño diversity and differential teleconnections

14. An Iberian climatology of solar radiation obtained from WRF regional climate simulations for 1950–2010 period

15. Deducing climatic elasticity to assess projected climate change impacts on streamflow change across China

16. GHG emission pathways until 2300 for the 1.5 °C temperature rise target and the mitigation costs achieving the pathways

17. Precipitation extremes and their relation to climatic indices in the Pacific Northwest USA

18. Salient differences in tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific between 1998 and 2016

19. Sensitivity of extreme precipitation to temperature: the variability of scaling factors from a regional to local perspective

20. Projected warming portends seasonal shifts of stream temperatures in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, USA and Canada

21. Investigation of temperature changes over India in association with meteorological parameters in a warming climate

22. Using remote sensing information to estimate snow hazard and extreme snow load in China

23. Heat waves in lowland Germany and their circulation-related conditions

24. Extreme reversals in successive winter season precipitation anomalies across the Western United States, 1895–2015

25. A climate stress test of Los Angeles’ water quality plans

26. Changes in the Spatial Heterogeneity and Annual Distribution of Observed Precipitation across China

27. Dominance of climate warming effects on recent drying trends over wet monsoon regions

28. Dimming in Iran since the 2000s and the potential underlying causes

29. Internal variability of a dynamically downscaled climate over North America

30. Estimation of the SST response to anthropogenic and external forcing, and its impact on the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

31. Modeling monthly meteorological and agronomic frost days, based on minimum air temperature, in Center-Southern Brazil

Climate change impacts

32. The combined effects of ocean warming and acidification on shallow-water meiofaunal assemblages

"The hypothesis that increased temperature will increase meiofaunal abundance was not supported. The hypothesis that a reduced pH will reduce meiofaunal abundance and species richness was supported. The combination of future conditions of temperature and pH (19 °C and pCO₂ of 1000 ppm) did not affect overall abundance but the structure of the nematode assemblage changed becoming dominated by a few opportunistic species."

33. Indicators of climate change adaptation from molecules to ecosystems - A special issue of Regional Environmental Change.

34. Vulnerability of California specialty crops to projected mid-century temperature changes

"High-producing counties (e.g., Fresno County in the San Joaquin Valley) are the most vulnerable in absolute terms, while northern Sacramento Valley counties are the most vulnerable in relative terms, due to their reliance on heat-sensitive perennial crops."

35. The impact of sustained hot weather on risk of acute work-related injury in Melbourne, Australia

"Overall, two and three consecutive days of hot weather were associated with an increased risk of injury, with this effect becoming apparent at a daily maximum temperature of 27.6 °C (70th percentile). Three consecutive days of high but not extreme temperatures were associated with the strongest effect, with a 15% increased risk of injury (odds ratio 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.01–1.30) observed when daily maximum temperature was ≥33.3 °C (90th percentile) for three consecutive days, compared to when it was not."

36. Detection of climate change-driven trends in phytoplankton phenology

"We find that bloom timing generally shifts later at mid-latitudes and earlier at high and low latitudes by ~ 5 days per decade to 2100."

37. Climate change alters stability and species potential interactions in a large marine ecosystem

"We found that the structure of the ecosystem has changed with a decrease in asymmetrical geographical overlaps between species. This suggests that the ecosystem has become less stable and potentially more susceptible to environmental perturbations."

38. Spatiotemporal variations of the start of thermal growing season for grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during 1961–2014

"More obvious advancing trends were found after 1980, which coincided with more rapid climate warming. The advancing trends weakened after 1998 when climate warming hiatus occurred."

39. Tree growth response of Fokienia hodginsii to recent climate warming and drought in southwest China

"Tree growth is significantly (p < 0.05) and positively correlated with January–April mean temperature from AD 1961–1987, while correlations with precipitation are insignificant. In contrast, from 1988 to 2014, tree growth correlated negatively with mean temperature of previous summer and positively with precipitation of previous August–September. This indicated that the limiting factors for tree growth have changed under different climate conditions."

40. Quality-assured long-term satellite-based leaf area index product

41. Individual fitness and the effects of a changing climate on the cessation and length of the breeding period using a 34-year study of a temperate songbird

42. Separating out the influence of climatic trend, fluctuations, and extreme events on crop yield: a case study in Hunan Province, China

43. The Influence of Temperature on Chytridiomycosis In Vivo

44. Extreme weather exposure and support for climate change adaptation

45. Tornado disaster impacts and management: learning from the 2016 tornado catastrophe in Jiangsu Province, China

46. Vulnerability of forests of the Midwest and Northeast United States to climate change

47. Heat stress increase under climate change twice as large in cities as in rural areas: A study for a densely populated midlatitude maritime region

48. Using Climate Models to Estimate Urban Vulnerability to Flash Floods

49. Impact of ocean acidification on the early development and escape behavior of marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma)

50. Ice acidification, the effects of ocean acidification on sea ice microbial communities

51. Integrated assessment on the vulnerability of animal husbandry to snow disasters under climate change in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

52. Complex resource supply chains display higher resilience to simulated climate shocks

53. Staying cool or staying safe in a human-dominated landscape: which is more relevant for brown bears?

54. A linkage between flowering phenology and fruit-set success of alpine plant communities with reference to the seasonality and pollination effectiveness of bees and flies

Climate change mitigation

55. Responsible for what? Carbon producer CO2 contributions and the energy transition

"Judgments of moral responsibility should be informed by both scientific analysis and societal standards. Society distinguishes responsibilities into positive and negative, general and special, and backward-looking and forward-looking. Ekwurzel et al. in Clim Chang 2017 shows that 90 major carbon producers have contributed most of the atmospheric CO2 emissions. Once it became clear no later than the 1960s that continuing CO2 emissions would progressively undermine the climate, the major carbon producers could see that they were marketing harmful products. The simple and merely negative responsibility to “do no harm” required them to reduce that harm rapidly either by modifying the product in order to capture its dangerous emissions or by developing safe substitutes to perform the same function, that is, by developing non-carbon-based forms of energy. The seriousness of the harms brought by climate change made this responsibility especially compelling. Ceasing to contribute to harm includes ending exploration for additional fossil fuels. The half century of failure by corporate carbon producers to reduce the harms caused by their products now gives them additional responsibility to correct the damage done by their decades of neglect of the underlying negative responsibility. If major carbon producers also wish to fulfill the general responsibility to make more than a minimal positive social contribution, their distinctive capacities of political power, wealth, and expertise qualify them for leadership in the transition to an energy regime that would be safe for future generations to rely on."

56. Emissions embodied in global trade have plateaued due to structural changes in China

"After strong growth in the early 2000s, emissions exported from developing to developed countries plateaued and could have even decreased since 2007. These changes were mainly due to China: In 2002–2007, China’s exported emissions grew by 827 MtCO₂, amounting to almost all the 892 MtCO₂ total increase in emissions exported from developing to developed countries, while in 2007–2012, emissions exported from China decreased by 229 MtCO₂, contributing to the total decrease of 172 MtCO₂ exported from developing to developed countries."

57. Scientists’ views on economic growth versus the environment: a questionnaire survey among economists and non-economists

"The survey results indicate substantial disagreement across research fields on almost every posed question. Environmental problems are most frequently mentioned as a very important factor contributing to an end of economic growth. Furthermore, we find that researchers are more skeptical about growth in the context of a concrete problem like the compatibility with the 2 °C climate target than when considering environmental problems more generally. Many respondents suggest ideology, values and worldviews as important reasons for disagreement. This is supported by the statistical analysis, showing that researchers’ political orientation is consistently correlated with views on growth."

58. Energy production, economic growth and CO₂ emission: evidence from Pakistan

59. Redefining climate change inaction as temporal intergroup bias: Temporally adapted interventions for reducing prejudice may help elicit environmental protection

60. Renewable energy programmes in the South Pacific – Are these a solution to dependency?

61. How to shape climate risk policies after the Paris agreement? The importance of perceptions as a driver for climate risk management

62. Does the lower stratosphere provide predictability for month-ahead wind electricity generation in Europe?

63. Large soil organic carbon increase due to improved agronomic management in the North China Plain from 1980s to 2010s

64. Limiting climate change: what's most worth doing?

65. A multivariate causality analysis between electricity consumption and economic growth in Turkey

66. Seizing policy windows: Policy Influence of climate advocacy coalitions in Brazil, China, and India, 2000–2015

Other papers

67. Reconstructing Climate from Glaciers

"For example, glacier modeling has demonstrated that the near-ubiquitous global pattern of glacier retreat during the last few centuries resulted from a global-scale climate warming of ∼1°C, consistent with instrumental data and climate proxy records. Climate reconstructions from glaciers have also demonstrated that the tropics were colder at the Last Glacial Maximum than was originally inferred from sea surface temperature reconstructions."

68. Spatial Coverage of Monitoring Networks: A Climate Observing System Simulation Experiment

69. How to reduce long-term drift in present-day and deep-time simulations?

70. An overview of European efforts in generating climate data records

71. Aerosol Effects on Climate via Mixed-Phase and Ice Clouds

72. Plant Evolution and Climate Over Geological Timescales

73. Temporal–spatial variability of atmospheric and hydrological natural disasters during recent 500 years in Inner Mongolia, China

from Skeptical Science http://ift.tt/2wfxxPQ

A selection of new climate related research articles is shown below.

Climate change

1. State of the Climate in 2016 See also: A Look at 2016: Takeaway Points from the State of the Climate Supplement

2. The rise in global atmospheric CO2, surface temperature, and sea level from emissions traced to major carbon producers

"Emissions traced to these 90 carbon producers contributed ∼57% of the observed rise in atmospheric CO₂, ∼42–50% of the rise in global mean surface temperature (GMST), and ∼26–32% of global sea level (GSL) rise over the historical period and ∼43% (atmospheric CO₂), ∼29–35% (GMST), and ∼11–14% (GSL) since 1980 (based on best-estimate parameters and accounting for uncertainty arising from the lack of data on aerosol forcings traced to producers)."

3. Optimal management of the flooding risk caused by the joint occurrence of extreme rainfall and high tide level in a coastal city

"Heavy rain is the main disaster-causing factor in inland areas, while high tide level is the main disaster-causing factor in island areas. For the area whose main disaster-causing factor is heavy rain, water storage projects could effectively reduce flooding. Meanwhile, pumps are economical choices for the area where tide level is the main disaster-causing factor."

4. Extreme tropical cyclone activities in the southern Pacific Ocean

"Between 1980 and 2016, the number of extreme cyclones did not show any tendency to increase."

5. Significant aerosol influence on the recent decadal decrease in tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific

"Here, we show that past changes in sulphate aerosol emissions contributed approximately 60 % of the observed decreasing trends in TC genesis frequency in the southeastern WNP for 1992–2011, using multiple simulations by a global climate model."

6. Emerging role of wetland methane emissions in driving 21st century climate change

"Our results reveal an emerging contribution of global wetland CH₄ emissions due to processes mainly related to the sensitivity of methane emissions to temperature and changing global wetland area. We highlight that climate-change and wetland CH₄ feedbacks to radiative forcing are an important component of climate change and should be represented in policies aiming to mitigate global warming below 2°C."

7. Recent climatic changes and wetland expansion turned Tibet into a net CH4 source

"The results showed that the drying up of wetlands from the 1980s to 1990s completely counteracted the rising CH₄ emission rates (0.75 ± 0.18 and 0.77 ± 0.19 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ in the 1980s and 1990s, respectively). However, recent precipitation-induced wetland expansion enhanced emissions to 0.96 ± 0.21 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ in the 2000s, which exceeded the rate of CH₄ uptake (0.74 ± 0.06 Tg CH₄ year⁻¹ in the 2000s)."

8. Increasing shortwave absorption over the Arctic Ocean is not balanced by trends in the Antarctic

"On the basis of a new, consistent, long-term observational satellite dataset we show that, despite the observed increase of sea ice extent in the Antarctic, absorption of solar shortwave radiation in the Southern Ocean poleward of 60° latitude is not decreasing. The observations hence show that the small increase in Antarctic sea ice extent does not compensate for the combined effect of retreating Arctic sea ice and changes in cloud cover, which both result in a total increase in solar shortwave energy deposited into the polar oceans."

9. Amplified summer warming in Europe–West Asia and Northeast Asia after the mid-1990s

"We identify a nonuniform warming pattern in summer around the mid-1990s over the Eurasian continent, with a predominant amplified warming over Europe–West Asia and Northeast Asia but much weaker warming over Central Asia. It is found that the nonuniform warming concurs with both the phase shift of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) and the decadal change in the Silk Road Pattern (SRP), which is an upper-tropospheric teleconnection pattern over the Eurasian continent during summer."

10. Sensitivity of global warming to carbon emissions: effects of heat and carbon uptake in a suite of Earth system models

11. An Extreme Value Model for United States Hail Size

12. Application of a two-step approach for mapping ice thickness to various glacier types on Svalbard

13. North American wintertime temperature anomalies: the role of El Niño diversity and differential teleconnections

14. An Iberian climatology of solar radiation obtained from WRF regional climate simulations for 1950–2010 period

15. Deducing climatic elasticity to assess projected climate change impacts on streamflow change across China

16. GHG emission pathways until 2300 for the 1.5 °C temperature rise target and the mitigation costs achieving the pathways

17. Precipitation extremes and their relation to climatic indices in the Pacific Northwest USA

18. Salient differences in tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific between 1998 and 2016

19. Sensitivity of extreme precipitation to temperature: the variability of scaling factors from a regional to local perspective

20. Projected warming portends seasonal shifts of stream temperatures in the Crown of the Continent Ecosystem, USA and Canada

21. Investigation of temperature changes over India in association with meteorological parameters in a warming climate

22. Using remote sensing information to estimate snow hazard and extreme snow load in China

23. Heat waves in lowland Germany and their circulation-related conditions

24. Extreme reversals in successive winter season precipitation anomalies across the Western United States, 1895–2015

25. A climate stress test of Los Angeles’ water quality plans

26. Changes in the Spatial Heterogeneity and Annual Distribution of Observed Precipitation across China

27. Dominance of climate warming effects on recent drying trends over wet monsoon regions

28. Dimming in Iran since the 2000s and the potential underlying causes

29. Internal variability of a dynamically downscaled climate over North America

30. Estimation of the SST response to anthropogenic and external forcing, and its impact on the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation

31. Modeling monthly meteorological and agronomic frost days, based on minimum air temperature, in Center-Southern Brazil

Climate change impacts

32. The combined effects of ocean warming and acidification on shallow-water meiofaunal assemblages

"The hypothesis that increased temperature will increase meiofaunal abundance was not supported. The hypothesis that a reduced pH will reduce meiofaunal abundance and species richness was supported. The combination of future conditions of temperature and pH (19 °C and pCO₂ of 1000 ppm) did not affect overall abundance but the structure of the nematode assemblage changed becoming dominated by a few opportunistic species."

33. Indicators of climate change adaptation from molecules to ecosystems - A special issue of Regional Environmental Change.

34. Vulnerability of California specialty crops to projected mid-century temperature changes

"High-producing counties (e.g., Fresno County in the San Joaquin Valley) are the most vulnerable in absolute terms, while northern Sacramento Valley counties are the most vulnerable in relative terms, due to their reliance on heat-sensitive perennial crops."

35. The impact of sustained hot weather on risk of acute work-related injury in Melbourne, Australia

"Overall, two and three consecutive days of hot weather were associated with an increased risk of injury, with this effect becoming apparent at a daily maximum temperature of 27.6 °C (70th percentile). Three consecutive days of high but not extreme temperatures were associated with the strongest effect, with a 15% increased risk of injury (odds ratio 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.01–1.30) observed when daily maximum temperature was ≥33.3 °C (90th percentile) for three consecutive days, compared to when it was not."

36. Detection of climate change-driven trends in phytoplankton phenology

"We find that bloom timing generally shifts later at mid-latitudes and earlier at high and low latitudes by ~ 5 days per decade to 2100."

37. Climate change alters stability and species potential interactions in a large marine ecosystem

"We found that the structure of the ecosystem has changed with a decrease in asymmetrical geographical overlaps between species. This suggests that the ecosystem has become less stable and potentially more susceptible to environmental perturbations."

38. Spatiotemporal variations of the start of thermal growing season for grassland on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during 1961–2014

"More obvious advancing trends were found after 1980, which coincided with more rapid climate warming. The advancing trends weakened after 1998 when climate warming hiatus occurred."

39. Tree growth response of Fokienia hodginsii to recent climate warming and drought in southwest China

"Tree growth is significantly (p < 0.05) and positively correlated with January–April mean temperature from AD 1961–1987, while correlations with precipitation are insignificant. In contrast, from 1988 to 2014, tree growth correlated negatively with mean temperature of previous summer and positively with precipitation of previous August–September. This indicated that the limiting factors for tree growth have changed under different climate conditions."

40. Quality-assured long-term satellite-based leaf area index product

41. Individual fitness and the effects of a changing climate on the cessation and length of the breeding period using a 34-year study of a temperate songbird

42. Separating out the influence of climatic trend, fluctuations, and extreme events on crop yield: a case study in Hunan Province, China

43. The Influence of Temperature on Chytridiomycosis In Vivo

44. Extreme weather exposure and support for climate change adaptation

45. Tornado disaster impacts and management: learning from the 2016 tornado catastrophe in Jiangsu Province, China

46. Vulnerability of forests of the Midwest and Northeast United States to climate change

47. Heat stress increase under climate change twice as large in cities as in rural areas: A study for a densely populated midlatitude maritime region

48. Using Climate Models to Estimate Urban Vulnerability to Flash Floods

49. Impact of ocean acidification on the early development and escape behavior of marine medaka (Oryzias melastigma)

50. Ice acidification, the effects of ocean acidification on sea ice microbial communities

51. Integrated assessment on the vulnerability of animal husbandry to snow disasters under climate change in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

52. Complex resource supply chains display higher resilience to simulated climate shocks

53. Staying cool or staying safe in a human-dominated landscape: which is more relevant for brown bears?

54. A linkage between flowering phenology and fruit-set success of alpine plant communities with reference to the seasonality and pollination effectiveness of bees and flies

Climate change mitigation

55. Responsible for what? Carbon producer CO2 contributions and the energy transition

"Judgments of moral responsibility should be informed by both scientific analysis and societal standards. Society distinguishes responsibilities into positive and negative, general and special, and backward-looking and forward-looking. Ekwurzel et al. in Clim Chang 2017 shows that 90 major carbon producers have contributed most of the atmospheric CO2 emissions. Once it became clear no later than the 1960s that continuing CO2 emissions would progressively undermine the climate, the major carbon producers could see that they were marketing harmful products. The simple and merely negative responsibility to “do no harm” required them to reduce that harm rapidly either by modifying the product in order to capture its dangerous emissions or by developing safe substitutes to perform the same function, that is, by developing non-carbon-based forms of energy. The seriousness of the harms brought by climate change made this responsibility especially compelling. Ceasing to contribute to harm includes ending exploration for additional fossil fuels. The half century of failure by corporate carbon producers to reduce the harms caused by their products now gives them additional responsibility to correct the damage done by their decades of neglect of the underlying negative responsibility. If major carbon producers also wish to fulfill the general responsibility to make more than a minimal positive social contribution, their distinctive capacities of political power, wealth, and expertise qualify them for leadership in the transition to an energy regime that would be safe for future generations to rely on."

56. Emissions embodied in global trade have plateaued due to structural changes in China

"After strong growth in the early 2000s, emissions exported from developing to developed countries plateaued and could have even decreased since 2007. These changes were mainly due to China: In 2002–2007, China’s exported emissions grew by 827 MtCO₂, amounting to almost all the 892 MtCO₂ total increase in emissions exported from developing to developed countries, while in 2007–2012, emissions exported from China decreased by 229 MtCO₂, contributing to the total decrease of 172 MtCO₂ exported from developing to developed countries."

57. Scientists’ views on economic growth versus the environment: a questionnaire survey among economists and non-economists

"The survey results indicate substantial disagreement across research fields on almost every posed question. Environmental problems are most frequently mentioned as a very important factor contributing to an end of economic growth. Furthermore, we find that researchers are more skeptical about growth in the context of a concrete problem like the compatibility with the 2 °C climate target than when considering environmental problems more generally. Many respondents suggest ideology, values and worldviews as important reasons for disagreement. This is supported by the statistical analysis, showing that researchers’ political orientation is consistently correlated with views on growth."

58. Energy production, economic growth and CO₂ emission: evidence from Pakistan

59. Redefining climate change inaction as temporal intergroup bias: Temporally adapted interventions for reducing prejudice may help elicit environmental protection

60. Renewable energy programmes in the South Pacific – Are these a solution to dependency?

61. How to shape climate risk policies after the Paris agreement? The importance of perceptions as a driver for climate risk management

62. Does the lower stratosphere provide predictability for month-ahead wind electricity generation in Europe?

63. Large soil organic carbon increase due to improved agronomic management in the North China Plain from 1980s to 2010s

64. Limiting climate change: what's most worth doing?

65. A multivariate causality analysis between electricity consumption and economic growth in Turkey

66. Seizing policy windows: Policy Influence of climate advocacy coalitions in Brazil, China, and India, 2000–2015

Other papers

67. Reconstructing Climate from Glaciers

"For example, glacier modeling has demonstrated that the near-ubiquitous global pattern of glacier retreat during the last few centuries resulted from a global-scale climate warming of ∼1°C, consistent with instrumental data and climate proxy records. Climate reconstructions from glaciers have also demonstrated that the tropics were colder at the Last Glacial Maximum than was originally inferred from sea surface temperature reconstructions."

68. Spatial Coverage of Monitoring Networks: A Climate Observing System Simulation Experiment

69. How to reduce long-term drift in present-day and deep-time simulations?

70. An overview of European efforts in generating climate data records

71. Aerosol Effects on Climate via Mixed-Phase and Ice Clouds

72. Plant Evolution and Climate Over Geological Timescales

73. Temporal–spatial variability of atmospheric and hydrological natural disasters during recent 500 years in Inner Mongolia, China

from Skeptical Science http://ift.tt/2wfxxPQ

Scientists Conduct Cutting-Edge Research During Arctic Coast Guard Mission

Watch the work being done on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy. It's the most technologically advanced vessel of its kind to conduct critical research in the Arctic.

from http://ift.tt/2vXX2AR

Watch the work being done on the Coast Guard Cutter Healy. It's the most technologically advanced vessel of its kind to conduct critical research in the Arctic.

from http://ift.tt/2vXX2AR

More Cassini legacy: Titan’s bonkers atmosphere

The 20-year-old Cassini mission to Saturn is ending today (September 15, 2017) with a fiery plunge by the craft into Saturn’s dense atmosphere. Click here to learn more about Cassini, and for links to witnessing its end online. Or click here for a statement from NASA about Cassini’s legacy. Or – if you want to learn more about Cassini science – check out this episode of the video series Speaking of Chemistry. In it, Matt Davenport teams up JoAnna Wendel to give you the low-down on the strange chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s large moon. The group’s YouTube page says:

When the Cassini space probe launched 20 years ago, planetary scientists knew that Saturn’s moon Titan showcased some complex atmospheric chemistry. But now that Cassini has had a closer look at the moon, researchers are shocked just by just how gnarly that chemistry is.

Bottom line: Watch this video to learn about Saturn’s large moon Titan, which might resemble that of an early Earth.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2wu2Xgk

The 20-year-old Cassini mission to Saturn is ending today (September 15, 2017) with a fiery plunge by the craft into Saturn’s dense atmosphere. Click here to learn more about Cassini, and for links to witnessing its end online. Or click here for a statement from NASA about Cassini’s legacy. Or – if you want to learn more about Cassini science – check out this episode of the video series Speaking of Chemistry. In it, Matt Davenport teams up JoAnna Wendel to give you the low-down on the strange chemistry in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s large moon. The group’s YouTube page says:

When the Cassini space probe launched 20 years ago, planetary scientists knew that Saturn’s moon Titan showcased some complex atmospheric chemistry. But now that Cassini has had a closer look at the moon, researchers are shocked just by just how gnarly that chemistry is.

Bottom line: Watch this video to learn about Saturn’s large moon Titan, which might resemble that of an early Earth.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/2wu2Xgk