From the shifting sands of the Saharan desert to the cracking glaciers in the chilly Antarctic, our Earth is constantly transforming right beneath our feet. The upcoming U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission is about to take us a step closer to understanding this ceaseless change and the intricate mechanisms behind it.



This remarkable satellite mission, set to launch in a few months, will track dynamic changes in Earth’s surface, from wetlands to ice sheets and disaster-hit infrastructure.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-nisar-revolutionizing-earth-observation">NISAR: Revolutionizing Earth observation</h2>



NISAR is a remarkable advancement in Earth observation, thanks to its unique dual-band radar system. This system combines two types of radar: the L-band, with a 25-centimeter wavelength, and the S-band, with a 10-centimeter wavelength. 



The L-band can penetrate through vegetation and observe larger features such as tree trunks, boulders, or the ground beneath forest canopies. In contrast, the S-band, with its shorter wavelength, is more sensitive to smaller surface-level features like leaves and fine textures.



The complementary nature of these two radar signals enables scientists to study a wide range of Earth’s features with greater precision. 



The L-band provides insights into broader and deeper structures, while the S-band focuses on finer surface details. Together, they offer a comprehensive view of Earth’s surface changes, capturing data on an unprecedented scale and frequency. 



“The planet’s surfaces never stop changing - in some ways small and subtle, and in other ways monumental and sudden,” said Paul Rosen, NISAR <a href="https://nisar.jpl.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Project</a> Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (<a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">JPL</a>).



“With NISAR, we’ll measure that change roughly every week, with each pixel capturing an area about half the size of a tennis court.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-nisar-can-do">What NISAR can do</h2>



The NISAR satellite is designed to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/take-a-glimpse-at-our-planets-new-ai-satellite-phsat2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">observe</a> nearly all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces with exceptional precision. This means it can monitor changes across vast areas of the planet, including natural features like glaciers and forests. 



The satellite will track how glaciers move and whether they are melting or growing. It will also <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parker-solar-probe-will-fly-through-suns-atmosphere-tomorrow-for-the-first-time/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">monitor</a> forests to measure growth or loss, helping us understand how much carbon they absorb or release. Additionally, it will observe wetlands to track changes in these vital ecosystems.



Beyond natural processes, NISAR will focus on major events like earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic eruptions. By detecting how the ground shifts during these events, it can provide critical information for disaster response teams. 



For instance, it can help assess damage and guide recovery efforts. This data will also contribute to a better understanding of the global carbon cycle - how carbon moves through the atmosphere, land, and oceans - which is essential for studying climate change.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-legacy-of-an-early-radar-satellite">Legacy of an early radar satellite </h2>



NISAR is built on decades of radar technology advancements. Rosen noted that the concept of using spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) began in the 1970s with NASA’s Seasat mission. 



Seasat was an early radar satellite. It was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the ocean. While Seasat operated for just a few months, it revolutionized how scientists study Earth.



The satellite inspired later missions that refined radar imaging and laid the groundwork for today’s sophisticated systems, like NISAR. 



This legacy demonstrates how earlier missions influenced <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sentinel-2c-satellite-delivers-first-breathtaking-images-of-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modern Earth observation</a> and continue to inspire scientists to innovate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-significance-of-the-nisar-mission">Significance of the NISAR mission</h2>



The NISAR mission will generate massive datasets to benefit scientists and decision-makers alike. Whether monitoring soil moisture or studying cryospheric processes, the data will be freely accessible via cloud storage.



“Our data products will fit the needs of users across the mission’s science focus areas,” noted Rosen.



The NISAR mission highlights the power of international collaboration. NASA and <a href="https://www.isro.gov.in" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ISRO</a> began working together in 2014 to combine their strengths and expertise. 



Each agency contributed unique radar systems - NASA's L-band radar and ISRO's S-band radar - and together, they created a unified satellite mission to observe Earth.



This partnership wasn’t without challenges. With a 9,000-mile (14,500-kilometer) distance between them and operations across several time zones, coordination was complex. 



Teams on different continents built <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parker-solar-probe-completes-closest-ever-approach-to-the-sun/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">parts of the satellite</a>, which were later brought together in India for final assembly. Despite the logistical hurdles, the collaboration succeeded, demonstrating the commitment and innovation of both agencies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-addressing-global-challenges">Addressing global challenges </h2>



More than just advanced technology, NISAR symbolizes what can be achieved when nations work together. 



This mission reflects a shared dedication to understanding <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/clusters-final-mission-a-fiery-return-to-earth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth’s changes</a> and addressing global challenges like climate change and disaster management.



As launch day approaches, NISAR stands as both a technological achievement and a beacon of international unity, ready to reveal valuable insights about our ever-changing planet.



Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech



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Satellite mission will closely monitor changes on Earth's surface

From the shifting sands of the Saharan desert to the cracking glaciers in the chilly Antarctic, our Earth is constantly transforming right beneath our feet. The upcoming U.S.-India NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) mission is about to take us a step closer to understanding this ceaseless change and the intricate mechanisms behind it. This remarkable satellite mission, set to launch in a few months, will track dynamic changes in Earth’s surface, from wetlands to ice sheets and disaster-hit infrastructure. NISAR: Revolutionizing Earth observation NISAR is a remarkable...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">University of New South Wales</a> (UNSW) in Sydney has investigated the long, slender keratin plates that hang from the upper jaw of humpback and southern right whales, which allow them to take in many small <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fear-of-predators-can-damage-prey-as-much-as-predation-itself/">prey</a> at one time&nbsp; (known as “baleen plates”). The goal of the research was to understand changes in these whales’ movements and behaviors over time.&nbsp;



The experts discovered that changes in the dietary habits of these whales going back almost 60 years correspond with changing climate cycles. These findings suggest that it is possible to link feeding patterns with climate conditions by analyzing whale baleen.



“What is incredible is that all of this information about dietary and spatial patterns has been unlocked just through analyzing plates in their mouths,” said study lead author Adelaide Dedden, a doctoral student at UNSW. By comparing the information stored in the baleen of humpback and right whales in the Indian and Pacific Oceans with environmental data, Dedden and her colleagues have revealed how the whales’ behaviors reflected changes in climate conditions over time.



For instance, humpback whales migrating along the east coast of Australia showed signs of poorer feeding opportunities during La Niña phases (a large-scale climate cycle which drives food availability in the Southern Ocean).



“Baleen whales are enormous and need huge amounts of food. This makes them vulnerable to changes in the environment, but this is also compounded by their survival strategy,” explained study senior author Tracy Rogers, a marine ecologist at UNSW. “They fast for the long periods when they leave their productive feeding grounds to breed. That’s why they’re extremely susceptible to changes in ocean-atmospheric cycles as they can drive food availability.”



“With La Niña events predicted to increase in intensity and frequency, it unfortunately means these whales may continue to have more of these poorer feeding prospects, and we could see more strandings in the future.”



However, researchers found that humpbacks from the west coast of Australia who feed in the Indian Ocean showed increased feeding success during La Niña periods. At the same time, their east coast counterparts also seem to adapt to different feeding strategies in more temperate waters on their migration routes. These findings offer hope that these animals may turn out to be more resilient to climate change than initially thought.&nbsp;



Yet, urgent actions to mitigate climate change will likely make a big difference for whale populations. “We need to act now while we still can. Acting on climate change now is good for whales but also for all of us,” Professor Rugers concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.832075">Frontiers in Marine Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Unlocking the secrets of whales through their mouths

A new study led by the University of New South...

A new study led by the <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/">University of Warwick</a> has found that social mingling shapes and transforms the “vocabularies” of apes, just as it does in the case of humans. The scientists discovered that, as opposed to a fixed repertoire of instinctive, automated calls, wild <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orangutans-have-the-cognitive-ability-to-make-and-use-stone-tools/">orangutans</a> show evidence of distinct “vocal personalities” that are molded by the social groups in which they live and communicate.



Living alongside orangutan communities in the low forests and swamps of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia, the researchers recorded the calls of around 70 individual apes across six populations. These populations differed naturally in density, ranging from groups that socialized intensely to more dispersed ones.&nbsp;



In high-density populations, the apes communicated by using a large variety of original calls, continuously trying out many novel sound variants which were often modified or even discarded completely.&nbsp;



By contrast, orangutans living in sparser, lower densities populations showed preference for more established, conventional calls. While these groups did not experiment with such a large number of novel sounds, when they did introduce new call variants, they tended to keep it, making their repertoire richer than that of apes living in high-density populations.



These results suggest that communication was also socially shaped in the case of our direct, extinct ape-like ancestors. This kind of social influence – though modest at first, before the rise of fully operational languages – could have then increased steadily, ultimately leading to the variety of ways in which human language is determined by those who surround us.



“Great apes, both in the wild and captivity, are finally helping us to resolve one of the longest-standing puzzles in science – the origin and evolution of language,” said study lead author Dr. Adriano Lameira, an assistant professor of Psychology at the University of Warwick. “We can now start conceiving of a gradual path that likely led to the rise of the talking ape, us, instead of having to attribute our unique verbal skills and advanced cognition to divine intervention or random genetic jackpot.”



“Many more clues await us in the lives of our closest living relatives, as long as we manage to guarantee their protection and their preservation in the wild. Each disappearing population will take with it unretrievable glimpses of the evolutionary history of our species,” Professor Lameira concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01689-z">Nature Ecology and Evolution</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ape “vocabularies” are shaped by social interaction

A new study led by the University of Warwick has...

New research from <a href="https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/">Kaiser Permanente</a> has found that coronavirus substantially increases the risk of severe complications in pregnancy. The experts analyzed records for more than 40,000 pregnant women during the first year of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/covid-related-deaths-are-much-higher-than-the-official-count/">COVID-19</a> pandemic.&nbsp;



The study revealed that the 1,332 patients who tested positive for coronavirus during pregnancy had more than double the risk of negative outcomes, such as preterm birth or blood clot.&nbsp;



Pregnant women who had been diagnosed with COVID-19 were also much more susceptible to severe maternal morbidity, which includes conditions such as acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis.



Study lead author Dr. Assiamira Ferrara is a senior research scientist and associate director of the women’s and children health section in the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research.



“These findings add to the growing evidence that having COVID-19 during pregnancy raises risks of serious complications,” explained Dr. Ferrara.



“Coupled with the evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy, these findings should aid patients in understanding the risks of perinatal complications and the need for vaccination. This study supports the recommendation for vaccination of pregnant individuals and those planning conception.”



According to Dr. Ferrara, a strength of the study is that it followed a large group of diverse patients from preconception through their pregnancies to assess possible associations between perinatal complications and COVID-19 infection.



The research was focused on pregnant patients of Kaiser Permanente in Northern California who delivered babies between March 2020 and March 2021. The results showed that pregnant women who tested positive for coronavirus were more likely to be younger, Hispanic, have had multiple babies, had obesity, or lived in a neighborhood with high economic deprivation.



Coronavirus patients had twice the risk of preterm birth. This risk was elevated during early, middle, and late terms of the pregnancy. Covid infection was also associated with three times the risk of&nbsp; thromboembolism, or blood clot, and 2.5 times the risk of developing a severe maternal morbidity.



“Our study was large, diverse, and supports the need for vaccination by pregnant individuals and those who plan to get pregnant,” said co-author Dr. Mara Greenberg. “The most important thing people can do to protect themselves and their baby is to get vaccinated.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine">JAMA Internal Medicine</a>.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

COVID doubles the risk of severe pregnancy complications

New research from Kaiser Permanente has found that coronavirus substantially...

In a new study from <a href="https://www.ecu.edu.au/">Edith Cowan University</a> (ECU), researchers have found that people who are confident in the kitchen don't just eat healthier - they also enjoy better <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pet-ownership-has-mental-health-benefits/">mental health</a>. The research was focused on 657 individuals who took a healthy cooking course for seven weeks.&nbsp;&nbsp;



In a partnership between ECU, The Good Foundation, and Jamie’s Ministry of Food initiative, a mobile food kitchen provided cooking classes in the community and on college campuses from 2016 to 2018.



During this same time period, experts at the ECU Institute for Nutrition Research measured the program's effect on participants' cooking confidence and self-perceived mental health.



The study results revealed that individuals who took part in the healthy cooking course experienced significant improvements in general health, mental health and subjective vitality. These benefits were perceivable immediately after the program, and persisted for six months after the course.



Furthermore, the participants exhibited substantial improvements in cooking confidence. These individuals also gained the ability to easily change eating habits and overcome lifestyle barriers to healthy eating, according to the study authors. Lead researcher Dr. Joanna Rees said the study showed the importance of diet for mental health.&nbsp;



“Improving people’s diet quality can be a preventive strategy to halt or slow the rise in poor mental health, obesity and other metabolic health disorders,” said Dr. Rees.&nbsp;



“Future health programs should continue to prioritize the barriers to healthy eating such as poor food environments and time restrictions, whilst placing greater emphasis on the value of healthy eating via quick and easy home cooked meals, rich in fruit and vegetables and avoiding ultra-processed convenience foods.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Prior to this study, experts at the ECU Institute for Nutrition Research had identified a link between eating more fruits and vegetables and improved mental health in the long term. This indicates that the healthy cooking students were not just feeling better because they became more confident in the kitchen, but also because they were eating so much healthier.&nbsp;



On the other hand, individuals who had not changed their diet after completing the program had still reported improved mental health. “This suggests a link between cooking confidence and satisfaction around cooking, and mental health benefits,” said Dr. Rees.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition">Frontiers in Nutrition</a>.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Healthy cooking linked to improved mental health

In a new study from Edith Cowan University (ECU), researchers...

Changing climate, with associated increasing global temperatures and more severe droughts in places, has created favorable conditions for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfires-will-increase-by-50-percent-by-the-end-of-the-century/">wildfires</a> over the past few decades. Large-scale fires in Australia, Brazil and California in the past two years have highlighted this phenomenon and drawn the world’s attention to the plight of forests around the world.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Studies have shown changing fire dynamics across the globe due to both changes in climate and changes in land use by humans. However, when scientists try to assess the global trends in fire-related forest loss, they are faced by a lack of globally consistent methodology in measuring this variable, as well as the problem that some satellite maps used have a course resolution (375&nbsp;m for VIIRS and 1&nbsp;km for MODIS)&nbsp;that does not allow discrimination between forest wildfires and burns on agricultural lands at the forest fringes.&nbsp;



“In the case of the Amazonian fires of 2019, there was no clear information on what exactly was burning: forests or previously deforested areas that had been converted to pasture and cropland,” explained Dr Alexandra Tyukavina, of the University of Maryland.&nbsp;“Even I, as a geographer, was terrified reading all the headlines that seemed to imply that the last patch of the Amazonian rainforest was on fire, which was not true.”



No high-resolution global satellite-based assessment of forest loss due to fire, employing consistent definitions and methods across biomes, has been available to date. In order to address this information gap, Tyukavina and her colleagues have developed the first ever 30m resolution (a 30 meter pixel represents a square patch of the land with a 30m side) global map of forest loss due to wildfires between 2001 and 2019. The study was published recently in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/remote-sensing">Frontiers in Remote Sensing</a>.



In their study, they defined forest loss as the removal of woody vegetation over five meters in height, and distinguished between forest loss due to fires and forest loss due to other factors such as agriculture (mechanical clearing of forests), floods, and hurricanes.&nbsp;They report the annual estimates of forest loss due to fire, and their trend between 2001 and 2019, globally and by climate domain within each region/continent. In addition, they analyzed trends in fire loss in tropical primary forests separately, because these forests have a high biodiversity and ecosystem service value.



“We have been producing the global forest loss map and updating it annually since 2013, but we did not attribute drivers of forest loss. This means that we did not know what exactly happened to forests (fire or mechanical removal) and we didn't know whether this forest loss was temporary (for example, due to slash-and-burn farming) or long-term (deforestation),” said Tyukavina.



The new map with its more refined scale, showed that the proportion of global forest loss due to fires between 2001 and 2019 is 26 to 29 percent, which is higher than what was previously estimated. It showed relatively consistent increases in wildfires across the globe, with boreal forests having the highest proportion of forest loss (69–73 percent), followed by subtropical forests (19–22 percent), temperate forests (17–21 percent), and tropical forests (6–9 percent).



The map shows that the area of fire-related forest loss is increasing globally, but particularly within the tropical primary forests of Africa and Latin America.&nbsp; Primary forests are forests in their ‘final form’; fully grown, dense, and bursting with biodiversity. They are extremely important for the environment due to their biodiversity richness and the ecosystem services they provide.



“The map is annual, and not near-real-time, so it won't help monitoring forest fires in real time but will be useful as a historic baseline regarding the rates of forest loss due to fire,” said Tyukavina.



The researchers propose to use the map as a tool for forest management, policy and conservation program development, and climate modeling. They state that understanding more about the exact drivers of forest fires will help from the standpoint of carbon accounting and land management.



“Our new map is a good indicator of where the fires resulting in the loss of forest canopy have happened in the last two decades, and could help guide future finer-detail national, regional and local-scale studies, or tune coarser-scale global models,” concluded Tyukavina.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

One-third of global forest loss has been caused by wildfires

Changing climate, with associated increasing global temperatures and more severe...

Coffee ground waste may soon be used to detect <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-evidence-shows-exercise-can-actually-change-the-brain/">brain</a> activity, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a>. The experts have demonstrated that spent coffee grounds can be transformed into environmentally friendly electrode coatings for accessing sensitive neurochemistry measurements.&nbsp;



According to the researchers, coffee ground waste may ultimately help to detect minute levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.&nbsp;



Coffee grounds have previously been used to make supercapacitors for energy storage. Dr. Ashley Ross of the University of Cincinnati led the new study, which she says is the first example of residual coffee grounds being repurposed for biosensing applications.



“I saw papers about using spent grounds to produce porous carbon for energy storage, and I thought maybe we could use this conductive material in our neurochemistry detection work,” said Dr. Ross. “And I also thought this would be a good excuse to buy lots of coffee for the lab!”&nbsp;



Traditional microelectrodes are made from carbon fiber in a process that involves multiple steps and harsh chemicals. The goal of the ACS study is to fabricate entire electrodes with carbon from coffee grounds, which would be less expensive and much more energy efficient and eco-friendly.



"Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers released from nerve terminals between neuronal synapses to regulate brain function. Although very important, neurotransmission occurs in extremely low molar concentrations and are quite difficult to detect in-vivo. Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) is an electrochemical technique which enables real-time detection of neurotransmitters at carbon fiber microelectrodes in the brain," wrote the researchers.



"Despite its utility, sensitive detection of low molar fluctuations in the brain remains difficult. Here, we are developing a carbon fiber modification method which uses porous carbon material made from waste coffee grounds for sensitive dopamine detection."



The researchers heated used, dried coffee grounds in a tube furnace at about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, they added the material to a potassium hydroxide solution to activate the carbon and open up holes in the structure. This mixture was heated again under nitrogen gas to remove any undesired byproducts.&nbsp;



"A solution containing 2 mg/mL porous carbon material was dissolved in water and dip coated onto the carbon fiber. The oxidative current was compared before and after electrode modification," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"Overall, we demonstrate the use and synthesis of porous carbon material from waste coffee grounds to improve the sensitivity, limits of detection, and electron transfer rate for catecholamine detection with FSCV."



According to the experts, the electrodes coated with the material reached oxidative current levels that were more than three times higher than carbon fibers in the presence of dopamine. The technique is fast enough to detect neurotransmitter release as quickly as it happens in the brain.



Dr. Ross predicts that making carbon fiber electrodes from scratch with porous carbon from coffee grounds will boost their neurochemical detection abilities because an even larger total surface area of the electrode will be exposed to adsorb the dopamine molecules.&nbsp;



The research will be presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2022.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Spent coffee grounds can be used to detect brain activity

Coffee ground waste may soon be used to detect brain...

On March 11, 2020, the <a href="http://archive">World Health Organization</a> (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic. Two years later, after the development and roll-out of a series of highly effective <a href="https://covid19.trackvaccines.org/agency/who/">vaccines</a> and the massive amounts of natural immunity induced by the fulminant rise of the highly contagious (but slightly less severe) Omicron variant, many countries are dropping nearly all containment measures, accepting the fact that Covid-19 will never be completely eradicated, and should be treated as an endemic disease. While parts of the world such as <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/omicron-wreaks-havoc-among-immunologically-naive-populations/">Hong Kong</a> are now facing their most severe outbreaks, many other countries are optimistic that the worst has passed - at least until the emergence of the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/03/new-covid-variant-mitigation/626980/">next variant</a>.



Regardless of this rather widespread optimism, a new study published in the journal <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02796-3/fulltext">The Lancet</a> paints a grim picture of Covid-19’s true death toll. While official figures claim that this disease has killed a little over six million people until now, a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.healthdata.org/">Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation</a> (IHME) has argued that the pandemic’s true death toll could be three times higher, reaching a total of 18 million worldwide deaths.



According to the study authors, lack of access to Covid-19 tests, patchy records of causes of death, and – in some countries – political incentives to undercount, hindered an accurate estimation of the number of deaths caused by this pandemic. Moreover, the researchers claim that people who died from delays to healthcare for other conditions caused by the pandemic should also be counted as victims of SARS-CoV-2 (although such cases don’t surpass more than 10 to 20 percent of the total of 18 million estimated deaths).&nbsp;



By calculating the excess deaths (the number of deaths over the historical average) in 74 countries and territories, and over 200 locations within countries, the scientists argued that the impact of the pandemic was seriously underestimated. “The pandemic has been much worse than anyone thinks,” said study lead author Christopher Murray, the director of IHME.



According to Murray and his colleagues, India suffered the highest number of excess deaths, estimated at 4.1 million, followed by the United States and Russia with about 1.1 million each. The excess mortality rate was highest in Russia (374.6 deaths for 100,000 inhabitants), and surpassed 300 deaths per 100,000 in 21 countries.&nbsp;



Calculating these excess deaths is important for estimating how various societies have managed the pandemic, and for better understanding what went wrong and why. “What we’ve missed is a huge toll in other parts of the world that probably would have change the urgency of things, such as scaling up vaccination in different parts of the world,” Dr. Murray said. Hopefully such highly costly mistakes will not be repeated during the remainder of this pandemic or in case other pandemics emerge.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Covid-related deaths are much higher than the official count

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared...

Although the billions of tons of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-a-planetary-emergency/">plastic</a> products produced over the last half-century (called by many the “Plastic Age”) have drastically changed the way we live for the better, the plastic waste that found its way into the environment is posing major challenges for nature.&nbsp;



According to a new study led by <a href="https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/">Kyushu University</a>, about 25.3 million metric tons of plastic may have entered our oceans and almost two-thirds of this amount cannot be properly monitored. Even more alarmingly, this could be only the tip of the plastic-waste iceberg, with another 540 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste still trapped on land (the equivalent of approximately 10 percent of all the plastic manufactured so far).



While scientists have been investigating the oceans’ surfaces and beaches to determine how much plastic waste has reached the oceans, massive amounts of ocean plastics are most probably well below the surface, hidden by the reach of scientific observation if using common sampling equipment.



“To assess the amount and whereabouts of plastic waste in the Earth’s oceans, we have to consider the whole process from their birth to burial, starting with emission from rivers into the ocean and continuing with their transportation and fragmentation into pieces,” said study lead author&nbsp;Atsuhiko Isobe, a professor of Physical Oceanography at Kyushu University.



Together with his research team, Professor Isobe created models that simulate these processes, by using satellite-data to investigate the movements of the plastic particles, as well as a massive amount of data about global plastic-debris emissions going back to 1961.



Their results suggest that large plastics and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/microplastics-discovered-in-the-blood-of-livestock/">microplastics</a> floating on the ocean surface each account for only about three percent of all ocean plastics. While a similar amount of microplastics was estimated to be on the beaches, 23 percent of the ocean plastic waste was larger plastic litter spread on the shores.



According to the simulations, the remaining two-thirds of ocean plastic may be in locations that make it impossible to monitor, such as the seafloor. However, compared to ocean plastics, the amount of mismanaged plastic waste on land which could find its way into ecosystems and oceans in the future could be twenty times larger. Being indecomposable in nature, this half a billion metric tons of plastic may likely outlive us and many other species.



Further investigations are needed to locate these plastics and build efficient methods of disposing them. “That’s going to be a Herculean task. Few advancements have been made so far in the field of ‘terrestrial plastics’ due to the lack of observation methods,” concluded Professor Isobe.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722010270?via%3Dihub">Science of the Total Environment</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Half a billion metric tons of plastic waste is unaccounted for

Although the billions of tons of plastic products produced over...

The Brazilian Atlantic <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-trees-are-vital-to-forest-survival/">Forest</a> is a rich natural region which originally occupied over 150 million hectares along the Atlantic Coast. Today, only about 32 million hectares remain. This highly fragmented and threatened ecosystem is considered by conservationists a regeneration hotspot.&nbsp;



However, according to a new study led by an international research team from <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a>, <a href="https://www5.usp.br/english/institutional/">University of São Paulo</a>, and the <a href="https://www.ufabc.edu.br/en/">Federal University of ABC</a> in Brazil, preventing the re-clearing of second-growth forests is a major challenge for restoration efforts in this area and other tropical regions. The researchers found that a third of regenerating areas in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest were sadly cut down again after just four to eight years of regeneration.



The scientists have analyzed detailed land use cover data from 1985 to 2019 to track the fate of over 4.5 million hectares of regenerated forest and discovered that only 3.1 million hectares persisted until 2019. “While the persistence of two-thirds of regenerated forest in the region casts a positive outlook for the biome’s conservation, the short life span of regenerated forests emerges as a new challenge for restoration efforts in the region,” said study lead author Pedro Ribeiro Piffer, a doctoral student at Columbia.



Moreover, while natural forest regeneration is considered a cost-effective strategy for countries to meet their ecological restoration and carbon sequestration goals, the ephemeral nature of these regrown forests significantly limits the biodiversity and carbon storage benefits of regeneration.



“Carbon sequestration through tropical reforestation and natural regeneration can make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, given that forest cover in many tropical regions increased during the early part of the 21st century,” said senior author María Uriarte, an expert in tropical forest dynamics at Columbia. “However, the size of this carbon sink will depend on the degree to which these forests are permanent and protected from re-clearing.”



“Our results underline a double challenge for forest conservation in tropical regions, where not only do we need to restore degraded areas, but we also need to ensure the persistence of these young regenerating forests,” added study co-author Jean Paul Metzger, a professor of Ecology at the University of São Paulo.



According to the scientists, regenerated forests had greater chances of survival on steeper slopes, close to rivers and existing forests, and near permanent agriculture. They were less likely to persist in rural areas and close to pastureland and regions of shifting agriculture.



“Regenerated forests can take decades to recover pre-disturbance species richness and biomass levels, so identifying the conditions that allow for a greater persistence of these young forests is vital for developing effective public policies targeted at increasing forest cover in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest,” concluded Piffer.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac5ae1">Environmental Research Letters</a>.



Image Credit: Pedro Piffer



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Regenerated tropical forests often have short lifespans

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest is a rich natural region which...

Oceans have cooling events, the inverse of heat waves. These can be damaging and cause mass die offs, but they can also sometimes be beneficial. A new study published by the <a href="https://www.agu.org/">American Geophysical Union</a> shows that these cold spells are 25% less common and 15% less intense than they were in the 1980s. The research is one of the first of its kind to focus on marine cold spells and how climate change is impacting them.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Recently, studies have focused on heat waves and warm ocean temperature events, less so the cold events,” said study lead author Yuxin Wang, an ocean and climate scientist at the University of Tasmania.



The researchers undertook this study to look closely at what the ocean was like before anthropogenic climate change and how cold spells in the oceans are changing over time.&nbsp;



“Extreme events, either warm or cold, can bring an ecosystem to the edge,” said Sofia Darmaraki, an oceanographer at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens who was not involved in the study. “Establishing the oceans’ baseline climatology and sensitivity of heat waves and cold spells to temperature changes, like they did in this study, is a burning question for the community.”&nbsp;



The scientists analyzed climate data on the oceans from 1982 to 2020 and confirmed that the oceans are warming. The surface water of the ocean is also becoming more variable over time, changing the patterns of hot and cold spells and making them more complicated to predict. Understanding these patterns could be vitally important because cold spells can offset the sometimes negative impact of heat waves.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Extreme events affect coastal communities and economies, but members of the public might not be aware of how they’re going to intensify in the future. We need to get the word out,” said Darmaraki.&nbsp;



"Information about the underlying physical causes of these extreme events can help improve forecasting, which can lead to the development of early warning systems. That information can be provided to fisheries and other stakeholders, and they can collaborate on the best adaptations, the best path forward.”&nbsp;



The better communities know what to expect, the better they can prepare.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19448007">Geophysical Research Letters</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

In warmer seas, cold spells are vanishing

Oceans have cooling events, the inverse of heat waves. These...

This Sunday, March 20, 2022 marks the official arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The so-called “vernal equinox” is one of two moments in the year when the sun is directly above the equator and day and night are almost equal in length. The word “equinox” comes from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox (night). After this equinox, days will start to be increasingly longer than nights until the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/summers-in-the-arctic-could-be-ice-free-by-mid-century/">summer</a> solstice from June 21.



The seasons occur because the Earth is tilted over slightly on its axis. While for half of the year, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted towards the sun (spring and summer), for the other half, it is tilted further away from the sun (autumn and winter). However, twice a year (in March and September, during the vernal and the autumnal equinoxes), the sun is directly over the equator, so neither hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. In the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are flipped, with the March equinox marking the beginning of autumn, and the September one the beginning of spring.



The vernal equinox signals new beginnings and nature’s renewal. Worms and grubs start reappearing, birds begin their migration to the north, along the path of the sun, and trees, plants, and shrubs are starting to bloom.&nbsp;



Since prehistoric times, people worldwide have celebrated the arrival of spring through various festivities. Famous examples include the ancient spring equinox celebrations that took place at Chichen Itza in Mexico, where the Mayans built a huge pyramid around the year 1,000 CE. Even today, the way the sun falls on this pyramid signals the passage of seasons. On the vernal equinox, it creates a mixture of light and shade resembling a huge snake slithering down the steps of the pyramid. Mayans called this day “the return of the Sun serpent.”



Other famous <a href="https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/celebrations/article/spring-celebrations">celebrations</a> of the arrival of spring include the Christian festivity of Easter, the Jewish Passover, the Hindi Holi, the Persian Nohruz, and the Thai Songkran. All these events are centered around myths of renewal and rebirth, offering hope to people worldwide that, similarly to nature, they will rise again and start life anew.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Spring finally arrives this weekend

This Sunday, March 20, 2022 marks the official arrival of...

When we perceive images in real life, our brains take in the visual information in a way that can be detected by a technique called electrocorticography, which records patterns of electrical activity in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-evidence-shows-exercise-can-actually-change-the-brain/">brain</a>. However, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.osaka-u.ac.jp/en">Osaka University</a>, these patterns are not set in stone, but can be changed by what we are paying attention to or imagining at the time.



“Attention is known to modulate neural representations of perceived images,” said study lead author Ryohei Fukuma, an assistant professor of Neuroscience at the Osaka University. “However, we didn’t know whether imagining a different image could also change these representations.”



In order to test this, Professor Fukuma and his colleagues worked with 17 patients with epilepsy who already had electrodes implanted in their brains to record and display electrocorticogram readouts of what they were imagining. The patients were shown an image of the real-time readout and asked to imagine a different thing, such as a landscape, a word, and a human face.



“The results clarified the relationship between brain activities when people look at images versus when they imagine them,” explained study senior author Takufumi Yanagisawa, an expert in brain-machine interface at Osaka. “The electrocorticogram readouts of the imagined images were distinct from those provoked by the actual images viewed by the patients. They could also be modified to be even more distinct when the patients received real-time feedback.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



The time needed to generate clear distinctions between viewed and imagined images was different for imagining a word and a landscape, suggesting that different parts of the brain are responsible for imagining these two concepts.



Considering the accuracy with which this new technology can display images that exist within a subject’s mind, a similar approach could be used to develop communication tools for paralyzed people, such as those with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. While similar devises that rely on motor control already exist for patients with such conditions, they degenerate faster than visual cortical activity, so an imagery-based device could be much more useful and reliable.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03137-x">Communications Biology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;

New technology can visually depict what we are imagining

When we perceive images in real life, our brains take...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Kainji Lake, a reservoir on the Niger River.



In 1968, Kainji Lake was created by the construction of the Kainji Dam. The Niger River, the third longest in Africa, enters the lake in the north.&nbsp;



According to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rivers-in-the-american-west-are-a-lifesaving-resource-for-birds/">ESA</a>, the creation of the lake submerged Foge Island and the town of Bussa and permanently flooded other riverine settlements, leaving around 50,000 people displaced.&nbsp;



Large parts of Foge Island are temporarily exposed during low water tides, and the land is often used by migrating fishermen. Kainji Dam is a dam across the Niger River in Niger State of Central Nigeria. 



Wild mammals occur at relatively low densities due to illegal hunting. Lake Kainji has suffered a dramatic decline as a fishery due to the high numbers of artisanal and subsistence fisherfolk using the lake. It has been suggested that a period of closure, together with controlled fishing rights may help improve fish stocks.



Kainji Lake National Park is the oldest of its kind in Nigeria. The park contains three distinct areas: a part of the Kainji Lake, the Borgu Game Reserve to the west of the lake, and the Zugurma Game Reserve to the southeast. The park is home to around 65 mammal species, 350 bird species, and 30 species of reptiles and amphibians. 



Video/ Image Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Kainji Lake in north central Nigeria

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.igb.illinois.edu/">Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology</a> reveals how scientists can modify common crops like soybean, rice, and wheat to protect them from heat stress.



“We need to double crop production by 2050 to feed a growing global population, and not only are we not on track to do that, but climate change is further complicating things,” said Amanda Cavanagh, a lecturer at the University of Essex. 



The study is part of Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE), an international research project that aims to develop food crops that turn the sun’s energy into food more efficiently.



“Using an engineering approach we designed multiple alternative metabolic pathways to photorespiration. Testing them in the field showed increases in productivity which led Amanda to significantly move the project forward by showing our engineered plants can withstand pretty extreme temperature stress,” said study co-author and RIPE researcher Paul South.&nbsp;



“As the climate changes and temperature stresses increase the pressure on our global food supply, farmers will need every tool available including engineering approaches like the synthetic biology used here to maintain safe and productive harvests.”



The experts tested plants modified to have more efficient photorespiration to see if they were better adapted to warmer temperatures.&nbsp;



The team found that the engineered plants produced 26 percent more biomass than the wild-type plants exposed to the same temperatures, and had 15 percent less yield loss under the higher temperatures.



Video Credit: Amanda Nguyen/University of Illinois



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Designing crops that can beat the heat

[sendtonews key="QGPzYnXEtN-1712599-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from Carl...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How does salt makes things taste better?

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes the first comprehensive estimate of carbon density in the Saharan, Sahel, and Sudanian zones of Africa. In an effort to measure the amount of carbon stored across these drylands, a team of scientists used high-resolution satellite images and artificial intelligence to map nearly 10 billion individual trees. 



"The high spatial resolution (50 cm) combined with AI and field measurements used in this study is key to improving tree inventories in drylands," said Pierre Hiernaux, a French researcher working for NASA. "The ever-increasing availability of very high-resolution satellite imagery will make it possible to assess carbon pools and their dynamics at the individual tree level on a global scale."



"This study is exceptional because it is pioneering a type of approach that will revolutionize the monitoring of trees and forests on a global scale: in the short term, it will be possible to map the world's trees from the centre of the Amazon to our schoolyards," said <a href="https://www.inrae.fr/en">INRAE</a> researcher Jean-Pierre Wigneron.



"Many fields of application will become much more efficient and accurate, such as tracking carbon stocks, biodiversity, monitoring logging and protection against illegal forest degradation, in near real time.”



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Remote sensing will revolutionize the way we monitor trees

[sendtonews key="EjmSP20gQK-2593093-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> features a visual dataset of.methane emissions from wetlands across the globe. Atmospheric methane levels have reached record highs in recent years, and wetlands are a major source of these emissions.&nbsp;



"Methane is an important greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to global warming. On a molecule by molecule basis, methane is much more efficient at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, the main driver of warming," says NASA.



"Though human activities, including agriculture, oil and natural gas production and use, and waste disposal, collectively contribute the majority of methane to the atmosphere, about a third of total methane emissions comes from wetlands."&nbsp;



According to NASA, understanding methane emissions from wetlands and other natural sources is critically important for scientists and policymakers who are working to combat climate change by reducing emissions from human activities.



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Wetlands are a major source of methane emissions

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes why experts are studying zebrafish to gain a better understanding of how the immune system responds to injury. Zebrafish have the ability to repair and regenerate organs.



“Organ regeneration offers an exciting opportunity for studying the immune system and to inquire why some species can regenerate organs like the heart or missing limbs while others like humans cannot,” explained Dr. Tatjana Piotrowski.



Zebrafish sensory organ hair cells are an ideal system to investigate the pathways and cell types involved in regeneration since they are easily destroyed with antibiotics and begin regenerating within five hours. This enabled the researchers to identify the exact timing and genetic programs for each anti-inflammatory macrophage activation state.&nbsp;



“Our hypothesis is that human macrophages do not receive the proper chemical activation 'cocktail' to instruct pro-regenerative processes,” said Dr. Nicolas Denans. “Identifying the molecular recipe of macrophage activation in zebrafish may one day enable us to design regenerative immunotherapies in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“The new evidence is a valuable resource for comparative studies on the genetic programs involved in macrophage-mediated repair and regeneration. In other words, different types of injuries may induce different kinds of inflammatory responses. We want to decipher whether this 'language' is universal or if there are a variety of dialects."



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

How the immune system responds to injury

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes how record-breaking heat expressed itself around the world in 2022.



Scientists have determined that 2022 was the 5th warmest year since 1880. Furthermore, the last nine consecutive years have been the warmest on record.



From devastating floods and wildfires to natural disasters like Hurricane Ian, 2022 showed us yet again how a warming climate affects people across the globe.&nbsp;



"As we look back at 20:22 and years past, we see that each year we better understand the challenges we face and how important it is to meet them," says NASA.



Video/ Image Credit: NASA Goddard



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

2022 illustrated the consequences of a warming climate

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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By <a href="mailto:csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Editor



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...