Planet Earth, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 5, 2023

Watch thousands of lightning bolts crackle over Europe in stunning new satellite video

Stunning first videos from a new space-borne instrument designed to improve the monitoring of thunderstorms show the crackle of lightning over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean. The images were taken by the Meteosat-12 satellite operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) from geostationary orbit,...

Jul 13, 2023

Where are the noctilucent clouds we were promised? The sun might be to blame.

A rare type of iridescent, shining cloud that was forecast to become much more common and visible this summer has, so far, failed to live up to the hype — and the increasingly volatile sun may be to blame. Noctilucent clouds (NLCs), or night-shining clouds, are a type of mesospheric...

Aug 15, 2023

Hawaii satellite photo shows devastation wildfires inflicted on Maui

A new satellite photo has captured a somber aerial view of the devastating wildfire that burned through the town of Lahaina on Hawaii's Maui island last week. On Aug. 8, fast-moving flames appeared on Lahaina's border and rapidly spread through the town, burning down buildings, exploding cars and filling the...

Aug 31, 2023

Photographer captures rare 'gigantic jets' of upside-down lightning blasting out of Atlantic hurricane

On Aug. 20, Puerto Rico-based photographer Frankie Lucena was taking pictures of a passing storm system that would soon evolve into the ongoing Hurricane Franklin, when a rare phenomenon of nature flashed before his eyes: several enormous bolts of lightning, blasting straight upward out of a storm cloud and stopping...

Sep 1, 2023

Will El Niño end the Southwest's megadrought?

The U.S. Southwest has been in a drought since 2000 — in fact, it's been the region's driest period in 1,200 years. Many researchers have labeled this exceptionally dry period a megadrought. At the same time, an exceptionally strong El Niño event is now 95% likely to last through at...

Sep 5, 2023

Eerie, ultra-detailed photo of a lightning 'sprite' exposes one of nature's least understood phenomena

An astronomer recently captured one of the most detailed-ever shots of a rare type of upward-shooting red lightning, known as a sprite, which briefly hovered in the air like a gigantic jellyfish during a thunderstorm over central Europe. Stanislav Kaniansky, an astronomer at the Banská Bystrica Observatory in Slovakia, snapped...

Sep 22, 2023

What is El Niño?

El Niño is a climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean which impacts weather patterns around the world. The cycle begins when warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean shifts eastward along the equator toward the coast of South America. Normally, this warm water pools near Indonesia and the Philippines....

Oct 6, 2023

'One of the biggest on record': Ozone hole bigger than North America opens above Antarctica

This year's hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica is one of the biggest ever seen, satellite data shows. Experts believe the huge gap in Earth's protective shield may have been caused by the eruption of Tonga's underwater volcano in early 2022. The ozone layer is a band of Earth's...

Oct 16, 2023

A strong El Niño is coming this winter. What does that mean?

Winter is still weeks away, but meteorologists are already talking about a snowy winter ahead in the southern Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. They anticipate more storms in the U.S. South and Northeast, and warmer, drier conditions across the already dry Pacific Northwest and the upper Midwest. One phrase comes...

Oct 23, 2023

Amazon's 'flying rivers' of vapor are drying up in an unprecedented drought. Here's how to save them.

The drought plaguing the Amazon is a worrying portrait of the climate challenges facing the world. The combination of the El Niño phenomenon and anthropogenic climate change has played a significant role in accentuating this extreme weather event. The Amazon region, known for its lush rainforest and flowing rivers, is...

Nov 27, 2023

How big can snowflakes get?

In 1887, a rancher named Matt Coleman spotted huge snowflakes that had fallen onto one of his cattle pastures in western Montana during a snowstorm and declared them as larger than milk pans. With a width of 15 inches (38 centimeters) and a thickness of nearly 8 inches (20 cm),...

Nov 27, 2023

Big blob of hot water in Pacific may be making El Niño act weirdly

A weird blob of warm water that has appeared in the western Pacific seems to be making this year's strong El Niño behave unexpectedly, reports The Washington Post. The blob is located in the west-central Pacific, near the International Dateline — a north-south boundary that separates two consecutive calendar dates...

Nov 30, 2023

Controversial study suggesting ozone hole isn't recovering is skewed by bad data, experts say

A controversial new study has sparked concerns that the ozone hole above Antarctica is not recovering as fast as we thought it was, and may even be getting bigger. However, many experts who were not involved in the study have rejected those claims, criticizing the quality of the research. The...

Dec 21, 2023

Extremely rare 'rainbow clouds' light up Arctic skies for 3 days in a row

Spectacular rainbow-colored clouds have been shimmering in the skies over and around the Arctic for more than three days thanks to an unusual cold snap in the upper atmosphere. And even more of these technicolor treats could appear during the next few months, experts say. The colorful clouds, known as...

Feb 2, 2024

How accurate are Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day forecasts?

Celebrity groundhog Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow on Friday (Feb. 2, 2024) as a crowd in his home town in Pennsylvania waited with bated breath, wondering if the rodent would see his shadow. He didn't. According to legend, this means spring will come early this year. If the groundhog...