A five-century precipitation record reconstructed from tree rings in eastern Spain shows that extreme drought and rainfall years have become roughly ten times more frequent since 2000 than at any point since the early 1500s.
Solar Orbiter has provided direct observational evidence that avalanche-like magnetic reconnection can power a solar flare. The mechanism was observed during a close approach to the Sun on September 30, 2024, as an M7.7-class flare evolved over roughly 40 minutes before reaching peak intensity. The results, published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics, confirm long-standing avalanche models previously supported mainly by statistical flare studies.
Solar radiation storms are extreme space weather phenomena in which high-energy particles from the Sun reach near-Earth space, posing operational risks to satellites and aviation. The latest rare S4 – Severe event on January 19, 2026, is the strongest since 2003, providing an opportunity to explain what solar radiation storms are and why scientists monitor them from Earth’s orbit to surface detectors.
Before dawn, while most of central Mexico sleeps, a small group of scientists climbs the dark slopes of Popocatépetl, one of the country’s most active volcanoes. Their goal is to recover seismic instruments that, after five years of continuous monitoring, have allowed researchers to construct the first complete three-dimensional image of the volcano’s interior. The model reveals multiple zones where magma accumulates beneath the crater, extending to depths of about 18 km (11 miles), and offers new insight into how Popocatépetl functions and how its eruptions may develop.
When powerful northerly winds swept through Los Angeles on January 7, 2025, they unleashed one of the most destructive urban firestorms in U.S. history. A new study attributes those winds to a rare “jet-forced Santa Ana” pattern — a collision of upper-level atmospheric forces that produced gusts over 35 m/s (80 mph), destroyed more than 16 000 structures, and killed 31 people. The event struck ahead of the first winter rain, after months of near-record dryness that left vegetation tinder-dry.
When a M9.1–M9.3 megathrust earthquake struck northern Sumatra at 00:58 UTC (07:58 local time) on December 26, 2004, it unleashed a basin-wide tsunami that killed more than 227 000 people and transformed global approaches to tsunami warning and coastal preparedness.
Yellowstone smells like sulfur, boils with heat, and vents enormous volumes of gas – yet one of volcanology’s most important signals is missing. The near-absence of sulfur dioxide reveals why Yellowstone’s magma stays deep, quiet, and chemically transformed long before reaching the surface.
New analyses of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS show that this rare visitor is a carbon-rich, metal-bearing body with an unusually bright coma dominated by carbon dioxide, suggesting a complex chemistry possibly linked to catalytic and cryovolcanic processes.
Researchers from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) and collaborators have identified a previously unknown cyclic climate pattern, the tropics-wide intraseasonal oscillation (TWISO), evident across tropical regions on 30–60-day timescales. The discovery, described as one of the most significant advances in climate dynamics, may help improve medium-range forecasts by revealing a predictable rhythm in tropical activity.
ESA scientists analysing a decade of Swarm satellite data have found that equatorial GPS signal disruptions follow a universal mathematical law describing many natural systems, suggesting the ionosphere behaves as a self-organising complex system.
