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

Today's climate change is driving geological changes such as coastal erosion and expansion of arid areas. It is also threatening our planet. Such dramatic climate changes happened before in the planet's history. These past events may teach us to forecast what the ongoing events are... click to read more

Glaciers around the world are melting faster than in any previous decade since measurements began. Glaciers form when snow accumulates over many years and compresses into ice. Glaciers accumulate snow in the winter, and then melt ice in the summer. Cold temperatures, more snow, or both,... click to read more

The industrial burning of fossil fuels is adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, trapping heat near the planet's surface and warming the oceans. A major effect of warming is to reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen (O2) found in the sea. This effect arises for... click to read more

Extreme weather events such as droughts, heavy rainfalls or extreme temperature fluctuations are occurring more frequently around the globe associated with global climate change. In early 2011, the western Australian coastline was hit by an unprecedented marine heatwave, which turned the coastal waters into a... click to read more