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Categories: Geoscience: Severe Weather, Space: Cosmology
Published Positive tipping points must be triggered to solve climate crisis



Positive tipping points must be triggered if we are to avoid the severe consequences of damaging Earth system tipping points, researchers say.
Published New red galaxies turn out to be already known blue galaxies



Not all discoveries turn out to be actual new discoveries. This was the case for the extremely red objects (EROs) found in James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data. Analysis shows that they are very similar to blue-excess dust obscured galaxies (BluDOGs) already reported in Subaru Telescope data.
Published Astronomers discover first population of binary stripped stars



Astronomers have discovered a population of massive stars that have been stripped of their hydrogen envelopes by their companions in binary systems. The findings shed light on the hot helium stars that are believed to be the origins of hydrogen-poor core-collapse supernovae and neutron star mergers.
Published Reaching for the (invisible) stars



Supernovae -- stellar explosions as bright as an entire galaxy -- have fascinated us since time immemorial. Yet, there are more hydrogen-poor supernovae than astrophysicists can explain. Now, scientists may have found the missing precursor star population.
Published Disadvantaged people wait significantly longer for power restoration after major storms, research shows



Researchers sought to investigate whether socioeconomically vulnerable households experienced longer power outage durations after extreme weather events. The team analyzed data from the top eight major Atlantic hurricanes between 2017 and 2020 that knocked out power for over 15 million customers in nine states across the southeastern U.S. The team found that people in lower socioeconomic tiers wait significantly longer to have power restored after a major storm -- nearly three hours longer on average.
Published U.S. renters are hit the hardest when a hurricane strikes, new research shows



Two new studies based on data from 2009 to 2018 show that renters living along the East and Gulf coasts of the United States face rent increases, higher eviction rates, and a lack of affordable housing in the aftermath of a hurricane.
Published Unexpected chemistry reveals cosmic star factories' secrets



Two galaxies in the early universe, which contain extremely productive star factories, have been studied by a team of scientists. Using powerful telescopes to split the galaxies' light into individual colors, the scientists were amazed to discover light from many different molecules -- more than ever before at such distances. Studies like this could revolutionize our understanding of the lives of the most active galaxies when the universe was young, the researchers believe.
Published Pacific Northwest snowpack endangered by increasing spring heatwaves



Even in the precipitation-heavy Pacific Northwest, more frequent heatwaves are threatening a key source of water supply. A Washington State University study that intended to look at snow melting under a single, extreme event, the 2021 'heat dome,' instead revealed an alarming, longer-term rising trend of successive heatwaves melting snowpack earlier in the year. From temperature records spanning from 1940 to 2021, springtime heatwaves in the region have doubled in frequency, intensity or both since the mid-1990s. The findings have implications for many areas worldwide that are dependent on snow-capped mountains to provide summer water since heatwaves have been on the rise globally.
Published Highly resolved precipitation maps based on AI



Strong precipitation may cause natural disasters, such as floodings or landslides. Global climate models are required to forecast the frequency of these extreme events, which is expected to change as a result of climate change. Researchers have now developed a first method based on artificial intelligence (AI), by means of which the precision of coarse precipitation fields generated by global climate models can be increased. The researchers succeeded in improving spatial resolution of precipitation fields from 32 to two kilometers and temporal resolution from one hour to ten minutes. This higher resolution is required to better forecast the more frequent occurrence of heavy local precipitation and the resulting natural disasters in future.
Published Study overturns conventional wisdom about wild turkey nesting survival



A new study finds that precipitation levels during nesting season are not related to reproductive success for wild turkeys, which runs counter to the conventional wisdom regarding the role that rainfall plays in wild turkey nesting success. The findings shed new light on how climate change may affect wild turkey populations.
Published Twenty-year study confirms California forests are healthier when burned -- or thinned



A 20-year experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques -- prescribed burning, restoration thinning or a combination of both -- are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California. These treatments also improve forest health, making trees more resilient to stressors like drought and bark beetles, and they do not negatively impact plant or wildlife biodiversity within individual tree stands, the research found.
Published How a drought led to the rise of skateboarding in 1970s California



Why did professional skateboarding arise in southern California in the 1970s? Was it a coincidence, or was it a perfect storm of multiple factors? It's fairly well-known that a drought in southern California in the mid-1970s led to a ban on filling backyard swimming pools, and these empty pools became playgrounds for freestyle skateboarders in the greater Los Angeles area. But a new cross-disciplinary study shows that beyond the drought, it was the entanglement of environmental, economic and technological factors that led to the explosive rise of professional skateboarding culture in the 1970s.
Published 'Energy droughts' in wind and solar can last nearly a week



Understanding the risk of compound energy droughts -- times when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow -- will help grid planners understand where energy storage is needed most.
Published Rail industry urged to consider safety risks of space weather



Train accidents could be caused by solar storms switching signalling from red to green according to new research examining the impact of space weather. Solar storms can trigger powerful magnetic disturbances on Earth, creating geomagnetically induced currents which could potentially interfere with electricity transmission and distribution grids. A study of two rail lines showed that more serious 'wrong side' failures (red to green) could occur with a weaker solar storm than for 'right side' failures, posing a serious risk which the industry needs to take on board.
Published Climate change will increase wildfire risk and lengthen fire seasons



Wildfires are some of the most destructive natural disasters in the country, threatening lives, destroying homes and infrastructure, and creating air pollution. In order to properly forecast and manage wildfires, managers need to understand wildfire risk and allocate resources accordingly.
Published How ChatGPT could help first responders during natural disasters



Researchers train AI to accurately recognize addresses and other location descriptions in Hurricane Harvey social media posts.
Published Stellar winds regulate growth of galaxies



Galactic winds enable the exchange of matter between galaxies and their surroundings. In this way, they limit the growth of galaxies, that is, their star formation rate. Although this had already been observed in the local universe, an international research team has just revealed the existence of the phenomenon in galaxies which are more than 7 billion years old and actively forming stars, the category to which most galaxies belong. The team's findings thus show this is a universal process.
Published Astronomers determine the age of three mysterious baby stars at the heart of the Milky Way



Through analysis of high-resolution data from a ten-meter telescope in Hawaii, researchers have succeeded in generating new knowledge about three stars at the very heart of the Milky Way. The stars proved to be unusually young with a puzzling chemical composition that surprised the researchers.
Published New study identifies the greatest threat to wildlife across North America and Canada: people



A biology student studied more than 600,000 wildlife rehabilitation center records to look at the human impact on wild animals, from lead poisonings to window strikes to vehicle collisions.
Published Artificial light is luring birds to cities and sometimes to their deaths



Scientists used weather radar data to map bird stopover density in the United States and found that artificial light is a top indicator of where birds will land. City lights lure birds into what can be an ecological trap -- with buildings that lead to collisions, less habitat, scarcer food, and more people and cats. The study provides the first continent-wide maps of migration stopover hotspots in the contiguous United States, and knowing these broadscale layover patterns can help in the development of conservation plans.