Twinkle, twinkle, little star. Why do the stars twinkle? It is because of the turbulence in the atmosphere. You may hear turbulence from the airplane broadcast when the airplane is shaking. The turbulence shakes not only airplanes, but also the light from the stars, by altering... click to read more

Antarctica may seem like it is cut off from the rest of the world but in our modern, globalized world Antarctica is connected to all of us, everywhere, via ships. For millions of years Antarctica was unreachable for most marine animals and seaweeds who are... click to read more

Today's atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are higher than ever during at least the last 800'000 years. More importantly, the atmospheric levels of this greenhouse gas continue rising at a speed that is unparalleled in our planet's recent geological history. Intensifying extreme weather events and... click to read more

Looking at satellite images or Google Earth, you often find continent-long elongated clouds covering our planet, which may look like "rivers" running through the sky. These rivers are narrow belts of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere. Atmospheric rivers extend from the tropics (where water tends... click to read more

The Antarctic ice sheet has been losing ice at an increasing rate. It remains unclear whether this mass loss will further accelerate over the coming decades. The continent of Antarctica is vast, bigger than the US and Mexico combined, and because it is so cold... click to read more