The intense heat from wildfires fuels updrafts, lifting smoke and vapor into the atmosphere. As the plume rises, water vapor cools and condenses around particles (including ash particles) to form Keep reading
Tag: convection
Underground Convection Thaws Permafrost Faster
In recent years, Arctic permafrost has thawed at a surprisingly fast pace. Much of that is, of course, due to the rapid warming caused by climate change. But some of Keep reading
Origins of Salt Polygons
Around the world, dry salt lakes are crisscrossed by thousands of meter-wide salt polygons. Although they resemble crack patterns, these structures are actually the result of convection occurring in the Keep reading
Measuring Ocean Upwelling
Large-scale ocean circulation is critical to our planet’s health and climate. In this process, seawater near the poles cools and sinks into the deep ocean, carrying dissolved carbon and nutrients Keep reading
Warming Temperatures Increase Turbulence
After multiple high-profile injuries caused by atmospheric turbulence, you might be wondering whether airplane rides are getting rougher. Unfortunately, the answer is yes, at least for clear-air (i.e., non-storm-related) turbulence Keep reading
The Solar Corona in Stunning Detail
The ESA’s Solar Orbiter captured this beautifully detailed video of our sun‘s corona last September. The Solar Orbiter took this footage from about 43 million kilometers away, a third of Keep reading
Convection in Action
We’re surrounded daily by convection — a buoyancy-driven flow — but most of the time it’s invisible to us. In this video, Steve Mould shows off what convection really looks Keep reading
“A Sun Question”
The sun‘s surface and atmosphere are endlessly dynamic, with magnetic lines, plasma, and convection creating a constant churn. In this photo by astrophotographer Eduardo Schaberger Poupeau, a curving question-mark-like filament Keep reading
How Squall Lines Form
Summertime in the middle U.S. means thunderstorms, many of which can form long lines of storms known as squall lines. Complex convective dynamics feed such storms. Here is an illustration Keep reading
“Níłtsą́”
Living in the central and western United States, it’s easy to dismiss summer weather as just another storm, but the truth is that this region sees some of the most Keep reading