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Categories: Energy: Alternative Fuels, Geoscience: Geomagnetic Storms
Published Owl wing design reduces aircraft, wind turbine noise pollution


Researchers used the characteristics of owl wings to inform airfoil design and significantly reduce trailing-edge noise. The team used noise calculation and analysis software to conduct a series of detailed theoretical studies of simplified airfoils with characteristics reminiscent of owl wings. They applied their findings to suppress the noise of rotating machinery. Improving the flow conditions around the trailing edge and optimizing the shape of the edge suppressed the noise.
Published Researcher pushes limit of when water will freeze


An engineer is changing what we know about when water freezes as he pushes the limit and gets the best look yet at tiny drops of water as they freeze.
Published Macrogrid study: Big value in connecting America’s eastern and western power grids


A 'macrogrid' that increases the electricity moving between America's Eastern and Western interconnections, two of the biggest power grids on the planet, would more than pay for itself, according to new research.
Published Wind and solar could power the world’s major countries most of the time


With the eyes of the world on the United Nations COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, strategies for decarbonizing energy infrastructure are a trending topic. Yet critics of renewables question the dependability of systems that rely on intermittent resources.
Published Tidal stream power can aid drive for net-zero and generate 11% of UK’s electricity demand


A day before world leaders meet at COP26 to discuss the importance of clean energy, scientists from across the UK say that harnessing the power of the ocean's tidal streams can provide a predictable and reliable means of helping to meet the country's future energy demand.
Published Energy efficiency instead of long-term storage


Incorporating energy efficiency measures can reduce the amount of storage needed to power the nation's buildings entirely with renewable energy, according to a recent analysis.
Published A lab in the sky: Physics experiment in Earth’s atmosphere could help improve GPS performance


The Earth's atmosphere has been used as a 'laboratory' to carry out a physics experiment which could help to improve the performance of GPS.
Published Using overpasses as shelter from tornado?


Meteorologists and emergency workers continue to contest the popular thinking that waiting out a tornado under an overpass is safe. According to the National Weather Service, doing so could actually increase the risk of death, in part because the wind from a tornado is thought to accelerate as it flows under the overpass, in what's known as the wind tunnel effect.
Published Expansion of wind and solar power too slow to stop climate change


The production of renewable energy is increasing every year. But after analyzing the growth rates of wind and solar power in 60 countries, researchers conclude that virtually no country is moving sufficiently fast to avoid global warming of 1.5°C or even 2°C. The article "National growth dynamics of wind and solar power compared to the growth required for global climate targets" was published in the journal Nature Energy, written by Aleh Cherp, Vadim Vinichenko, Jale Tosun, Joel A.Gordon and Jessica Jewell.
Published Climate change threatens hydropower energy security in the Amazon basin


Hydropower is the dominant source of energy in the Amazon region, the world's largest river basin and a hotspot for future hydropower development. However, a new study warns that in the coming decades, climate change-driven reductions in precipitation and river discharge will diminish the Amazon's hydropower capacity.
Published Winds of change: Improvements for wind energy production


In recent years, much progress has been made in the wind energy industry as the cost of development has declined significantly with emerging technologies and incentive policies. Nevertheless, wind farms can be made more efficient. Researchers now examine diurnal and seasonal patterns of wind speeds and their impact on the adequacy of energy production. The results helped them develop a seasonal adequacy assessment procedure.
Published Wind energy can deliver vital slash to global warming


Implementing advance wind energy scenarios could achieve a reduction in global warming atmospheric average temperatures of 0.3 to 0.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, according to new research.
Published Making musical performances safer in the era of COVID-19


Researchers have studied aerosol production from playing wind instruments, singing and acting, allowing them to develop recommendations to minimize COVID transmission.
Published How do wind turbines respond to winds, ground motion during earthquakes?


Wind power has experienced fast growth within China during the past decade, but many wind farms are being built within regions of high seismic activity. Researchers are now exploring the dynamic behaviors of wind turbines subjected to combined wind-earthquake loading. The group discovered that changes in the wind increase and decrease the response amplitude of the wind turbine under weak and strong earthquakes, respectively.
Published Effect of ‘eddy killing’ in oceans is no longer a matter of guesswork


Applying a new coarse-graining, spatial method of analysis to satellite imagery, scientists provide a direct measure of the impact of wind driven eddy-killing on the kinetic energy of ocean currents -- a continual loss of 50 gigawatts, equivalent to the detonation of a Hiroshima nuclear bomb every 20 minutes, year round.
Published Polymer scientist helps develop new technique for large-scale energy storage



Electric vehicles require power to be available anywhere and anytime without delay to recharge, but solar and wind are intermittent energy sources that are not available on demand. And the electricity they do generate needs to be stored for later use and not go to waste. New research reveals a more stable way to store this important energy.
Published Protecting Earth from space storms


A major space weather event could have a catastrophic impact on Earth, disabling communications and electrical systems. Researchers are using the Frontera supercomputer to develop new geomagnetic forecasting methods and improve the Geospace Model used by NOAA for operational purposes. They hope to increase the lead time for space weather events from 30 minutes to 1-3 days, localize space weather forecasts, and provide uncertainty estimates.
Published Solving solar puzzle could help save Earth from planet-wide blackouts


Understanding the Sun's magnetic dynamo could help predict solar weather, such as potentially dangerous geothermal storms, solar flares and sunspots. Mathematicians have proposed a new model of the Sun that matches observed data.
Published Unravelling the knotty problem of the Sun's activity


A new approach to analysing the development of magnetic tangles on the Sun has led to a breakthrough in a longstanding debate about how solar energy is injected into the solar atmosphere before being released into space, causing space weather events. The first direct evidence that field lines become knotted before they emerge at the visible surface of the Sun has implications for our ability to predict the behavior of active regions and the nature of the solar interior.
Published Lightning impacts edge of space in ways not previously observed


A team of researchers working with data collected by an Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) have examined the simultaneous impacts of thunderstorms and solar flares on the ionospheric D-region (often referred to as the edge of space).