Could the system of ocean currents that regulates the climate for a swath of the planet — currents known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — collapse sooner than expected? New research, published in the journal Nature Communications, show that a sharp weakening of the currents, or even a shutdown, could be upon us by century’s end. In interviews, several researchers who study the overturning applauded the new analysis for using a novel approach to predict when we might cross a tipping point. But they voiced reservations about some of its methods, and said more work was still needed to nail down the timing with greater certainty. Susan Lozier, Dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair of the College of Sciences, and a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has researched the AMOC in the past and is involved in new efforts to directly measure its currents. But the projects began collecting data in 2004 at the earliest, which isn’t enough time to draw firm long-term conclusions. “It is extremely difficult to look at a short record for the ocean overturning and say what it is going to do over 30, 40 or 50 years,” Lozier said.
The New York Times
July 25, 2023Four science instruments at Delta Junction, Alaska, have begun gathering air quality data as part of a multi-state project to determine the chemical content and physical properties of airborne particulate matter. The Delta Junction site, one of 12 in 10 states, is managed by associate professor Jingqiu Mao of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute and College of Natural Science and Mathematics. Nga Lee “Sally” Ng, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is the lead investigator. The instruments began operating June 26. The $12 million project, funded by the National Science Foundation, has created the nation’s first long-term network of monitoring stations on aerosol chemical content and properties.
Delta Wind
July 17, 2023Like a massive, watery battery, the Atlantic Ocean powers hurricanes. As the ocean warms throughout the summer, it sends moisture into the atmosphere—heat energy that combines with wind to spin up storms. And the surface of the North Atlantic has never been hotter at this time of year — the early stages of hurricane season — at least since routine satellite measurements began in the early 1980s. Because of this change, a showdown over this year’s hurricane season is literally heating up in the Atlantic. Hurricanes could feed on that warm ocean water. But at the same time, an El Niño has also formed in the Pacific and could provide conditions that prevent hurricanes. Annalisa Bracco, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, mentions other factors that may influence the 2023 hurricane season.
Wired
June 29, 2023One of the primary drivers of climate change is excess greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mitigating climate change in the coming century will require both decarbonization — electrifying the power grid or reducing fossil fuel-guzzling transportation — and removing already existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a process called carbon dioxide removal. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University have released research proposing a novel pathway involving seagrass and mangroves — known as blue carbon ecosystems — that naturally capture carbon through photosynthesis, which converts carbon dioxide into living tissue. Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is a co-author of the research.
India Education Diary
June 26, 2023Deep sonar and more high-tech ships were involved in the search to find a missing submersible which disappeared June 18 on the way to the ruins and wreckage of the Titanic with five people aboard. The search area grew exponentially to twice the size of Connecticut. Susan Lozier, Dean and Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair of the College of Sciences, and a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said the spot where the RMS Titanic wrecked in 1912 is home to treacherous conditions both above and below the water. “The thing to keep in mind, just the surface conditions, boats and everything involved in this rescue operation, this part of the ocean is where the Gulf Stream continues up northward very energetically, and interacts with the atmosphere, a stormy area,” said Lozier, a physical oceanographer who has researched ocean currents in the North Atlantic. (Lozier was also interviewed by Atlanta News First.)
WSB-TV
June 21, 2023Ocean temperatures have been off the charts since mid-March 2023, with the highest average levels in 40 years of satellite monitoring, and the impact is breaking through in disruptive ways around the world. The sea of Japan is more than 7 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) warmer than average. The Indian monsoon, closely tied to conditions in the warm Indian Ocean, has been well below its expected strength. Spain, France, England and the whole Scandinavian Peninsula are also seeing rainfall far below normal, likely connected to an extraordinary marine heat wave in the eastern North Atlantic. Annalisa Bracco, professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, partially blames El Niño, but underlying everything is global warming — the continuing rising trend of sea surface and land temperatures for the past several decades as human activities have increased greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. (This story was also covered by The Conversation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fast Company, U.S. News & World Report, Idaho Press, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Nasdaq, Daily Mail, Today (Singapore), The Straits Times, Times of San Diego, Lake County News, and Pressenza.)
The Conversation
June 21, 2023Ten years ago, Samer Naif made an unexpected discovery in Earth’s mantle: a narrow pocket, proposed to be filled with magma, hidden some 60 kilometers beneath the seafloor of the Cocos Plate. The observation provided an explanation for how tectonic plates can gradually slide, lubricated by partial melting. The study also “raised several questions about why magma is stored in a thin channel — and where the magma originated from,” says Naif, an assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology. Fellow researchers went on to share competing interpretations for the cause of the channel. Naif went looking for clues of mantle magmas that he first observed in his 2013 Nature study. The results of that search are detailed in a new Science Advances article, “Episodic intraplate magmatism fed by a long-lived melt channel of distal plume origin”, co-authored by Naif. (Coverage of this study also appeared at Phys.org and Interesting Engineering.)
Newswise
June 20, 2023Ice is an important facet of Earth’s climate system. Since ice affects our climate and sea levels, understanding the way ice sheets develop and change over time helps us better predict the future of our planet. So, what are researchers finding? Alexander Robel, assistant professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences who leads the Georgia Tech Ice and Climate Group, joins the Finding Genius podcast to provide updates on the latest research. By studying the causes of ice sheet change, Robel is on a mission to develop conceptual, mathematical, and computational tools to predict future changes.
Finding Genius Podcast
June 13, 2023Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University are proposing a novel pathway through which coastal ecosystem restoration can permanently capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Seagrass and mangroves – known as blue carbon ecosystems – naturally capture carbon through photosynthesis, which converts carbon dioxide into living tissue. Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, was a researcher for the study.
Mirage News
June 10, 2023Excess greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are a major driver of climate change. Mitigating climate change in the future will require both decarbonization — such as transitioning to renewable energy sources — and carbon dioxide removal, which involves extracting already existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. A recent study led by Georgia Tech and Yale University has proposed a unique approach to permanently capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through coastal ecosystem restoration. Chris Reinhard, associate professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is one of the study's authors. (The study was also covered in ScienceDaily.)
Earth.com
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