Earth and Environment

Coastal Glacier Retreat Linked to Climate Change

bwaye3 — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 20:05:40 +0000

Coastal Glacier Retreat Linked to Climate Change bwaye3 Tue, 07/19/2022 - 16:05

More of the world’s coastal glaciers are melting faster than ever, but exactly what’s triggering the large-scale retreat has been difficult to discern because of natural fluctuations in the glaciers’ surroundings.

Now, researchers at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) and the Georgia Institute for Technology have developed a methodology to determine why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change. Attributing the human role for coastal glaciers – which melt directly into the sea – could pave the way to better predictions about sea level rise.

Published July 13 in the journal The Cryosphere, the methodology is unique because it treats rapid glacier retreat as an individual probabilistic event, like a wildfire or tropical storm. For a large retreat to happen, the glacier must retreat past its “stability threshold,” which is usually a steep rise in the underlying bedrock that helps slow its flow. The probability of that happening varies depending on local climate and ocean conditions that change with natural fluctuations and human-caused warming. Even small variations can cause large changes in a glacier’s behavior, making them hard to predict and leading to cases where glaciers were found retreating right next to ones that weren’t.

So far, scientists have tested the approach only in computer models using simplified glaciers. They found that even modest global warming caused most glaciers to melt, or retreat.

The next step, the researchers said, is for scientists to simulate the coastal glaciers of a real ice sheet, like Greenland’s, which holds enough ice to raise sea level by about 22 feet (7 meters). That will reveal whether they are retreating due to climate change and help predict when major ice loss might next occur.

“The methodology we’re proposing is a road map towards making confident statements about what the human role is [in glacial retreats],” said glaciologist John Christian, who is a postdoctoral researcher at both The University of Texas at Austin and Georgia Tech. “Those statements can then be communicated to the public and policymakers and help in their decision making.”

Overcoming Uncertainty

Co-author and UTIG glaciologist Ginny Catania points out that the last Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report found there was still too much uncertainty about coastal glaciers to say whether their retreat is due to human-caused climate change or natural climate fluctuations.

The new study shows how to overcome the uncertainty by providing a methodology that accounts for differences between glaciers and natural climate fluctuations, while testing the effect of background trends such as global warming. According to Catania, the study means they can now attribute mass coastal glacier retreat to climate change and not just natural variability.

“And that’s the first time anyone’s done that,” she said.

To test the methodology, the team ran thousands of simulations of the past 150 years with and without global warming. The simulations showed that even modest warming dramatically increased the probability of ice sheet-wide glacier retreat.

When the scientists ran models without human-caused climate change, they found it virtually impossible for more than a few of the glaciers to begin retreating within years of each other.

By contrast, since 2000, nearly all (200) of Greenland’s 225 coastal glaciers have been in varying states of retreat.

“This study gives us a toolbox to determine the role of humans in the loss of ice from Greenland and Antarctica, to say with confidence that it’s not just coincidence,” said Georgia Tech College of Sciences glaciologist and co-author Alex Robel.

The research on coastal glaciers builds on previous work to understand the human role on the retreat of mountain glaciers — which is now well-established. The latest study was funded by UTIG and the National Science Foundation. UTIG is a research arm of UT Austin’s Jackson School of Geosciences.

Citation: John Erich Christian, Alexander A. Robel, Ginny Catania. A probabilistic framework for quantifying the role of anthropogenic climate change in marine-terminating glacier retreats. The Cryosphere, 2022; 16 (7): 2725 DOI: 10.5194/tc-16-2725-2022

Summary sentence

Researchers have developed a methodology to determine why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

Summary

Researchers have developed a methodology to determine why coastal glaciers are retreating, and in turn, how much can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

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Tue, 07/19/2022 - 12:00

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Tue, 07/19/2022 - 13:16

New “Megaflash” Lightning Record Set; Could Provide Severe Storm Insights

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 19:50:40 +0000

New “Megaflash” Lightning Record Set; Could Provide Severe Storm Insights admin Thu, 07/31/2025 - 15:50

A lightning flash that extended from near Dallas, Texas, to Kansas City, Missouri, now holds the record for the longest lightning discharge ever recorded. Known as a “megaflash,” the lightning discharge spanned some 515 miles (829 kilometers) and lasted 7.39 seconds. It included over a hundred individual cloud-to-ground strikes that were part of a large storm system extending from Minnesota to Texas.

Most lightning flashes are much shorter – 10 miles or less – but discharges that travel hundreds of miles occur frequently enough to be detected from space and are often seen in the Great Plains area of the United States. Beyond the inherent interest in their unusual length and duration, meteorologists are studying these megaflashes to learn more about the mysteries of lightning, to develop new approaches for predicting the risk of severe storms – and to provide public warning of lightning bolts that may occur unexpectedly long after the storm front spawning them has passed.

The new record megaflash was identified in data from a storm that occurred in October 2017. The flash produced more than 116 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes from a lengthy and complex series of jagged paths woven through the clouds. It was not found earlier because of how the data was originally processed, but was finally identified when the satellite data was re-analyzed in 2024.

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Thu, 07/31/2025 - 15:48

Deep Dive Into Shark Ecology Provides Path to Conservation

admin — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 18:22:41 +0000

Deep Dive Into Shark Ecology Provides Path to Conservation admin Thu, 07/24/2025 - 14:22

Few animals captivate people’s imagination like sharks. From the enduring cultural legacy of Jaws, which celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, to the continued popularity of the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, now in its 37th year, media portrayals of the apex predator can shape public perception, illuminate their role within Earth's ecosystems, and influence conservation efforts.

For Cameron Perry, every week is shark week. The Georgia Tech alumnus earned his Ph.D. in ocean science and engineering in 2024 and now leads the whale shark and manta ray initiatives at Georgia Aquarium.

As a 6-year-old listening to his mother read him Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and imagining the creatures Captain Nemo encountered, Perry had dreams of exploring the oceans for himself. When he saw his first whale shark in Georgia Aquarium's 6.3-million-gallon tank, he set out to learn as much as he could about the gentle giants and help to conserve the endangered species.

Perry's research has taken him around the world to observe whale shark behaviors in St. Helena and the Galapagos Islands, working to understand their migration habits, reproduction, and global ecology. While most people won't encounter sharks daily as he does, Perry sees the aquarium as well as the media as effective tools in showcasing sharks in the proper light.

"They are kind of mysterious and unknown. For many people, they've never encountered sharks in their lifetime, and part of that captivation could lead to fear, but education can turn that fear into wonder and awe. There's a narrative that these animals are mindless eating machines, but the more you learn, you realize that's not the case," he said. “These creatures have existed for 400 million years; they're older than trees, and understanding their role on our planet is important to changing the narrative around sharks."

Perry likens sharks to the white blood cells of the ecosystems in which they live, as they help prevent the spread of disease through the consumption of dead or diseased prey, contribute to population control, and provide balance to the ocean's biodiversity.

Understanding Our Role

While at Georgia Tech, Perry worked alongside Regents’ Chair and Harry and Anna Teasley Chair in Environmental Biology Mark Hay, whose research has highlighted the role that sharks, and other large predators, play in habitat regulation within coral reefs. Hay explains that overfishing and other human activities have decimated shark populations in certain parts of the world, significantly affecting coral reefs and the populations that rely on them.

As the manager of a freshwater beach in Kentucky in 1975, Hay saw firsthand the impact that Jaws had on the beachgoing public at the time — including his lifeguards.

“I had about 25 lifeguards, and I made them swim a mile every day on our buoy line. After we all went to see Jaws, about half of them refused to swim the mile for over a week. They'd look at me and say, 'You can fire me. I'm not going in,' and I'd laugh and say, ‘We're in freshwater. Jaws isn't in there.’"

Hay said that while the movie remains a favorite of his, its depiction of sharks isn't representative of their behavior in the wild, as shark attacks are often accidents, not predatory actions. Like Perry, Hay believes that education can help protect sharks and bring a renewed focus to solving the ongoing issues facing the oceans.

"These ecosystems are degrading, and it's us that's doing it. What I am trying to do in my teaching is to go beyond cataloging the demise and take a more Georgia Tech-type approach by saying, 'If the bridge is broken, we have to be the ones to rebuild it,'" he said.

Hay keeps a saber-toothed tiger fossil on his desk as a constant reminder to himself that "everything I study was shaped by what used to be here," and how understanding nature can help preserve it for the future. Sharks are a captivating species, and both Perry and Hay stress that continued research and a commitment to education are the key to their conservation.

Subtitle

Experts say that more accurate depictions of sharks can help protect them and highlight their role in global ecosystems.

Summary sentence

Experts say that more accurate depictions of sharks can help protect them and highlight their role in global ecosystems.

Summary

Experts say that more accurate depictions of sharks can help protect them and highlight their role in global ecosystems.

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Thu, 07/24/2025 - 12:00

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Thu, 07/24/2025 - 14:21

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 13:55:41 +0000

Georgia Tech Study Hopes to Prevent Cislunar Collisions as Moon Missions Increase admin Fri, 07/18/2025 - 09:55

As more satellites launch into space, the satellite industry has sounded the alarm about the danger of collisions in low Earth orbit (LEO). What is less understood is what might happen as more missions head to a more targeted destination: the moon.

According to The Planetary Society, more than 30 missions are slated to launch to the moon between 2024 and 2030, backed by the U.S., China, Japan, India, and various private corporations. That compares to over 40 missions to the moon between 1959 and 1979 and a scant three missions between 1980 and 2000.

A multidisciplinary team at Georgia Tech has found that while collision probabilities in orbits around the moon are very low compared to Earth orbit, spacecraft in lunar orbit will likely need to conduct multiple costly collision avoidance maneuvers each year. The Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets published the Georgia Tech collision-avoidance study in March.

“The number of close approaches in lunar orbit is higher than some might expect, given that there are only tens of satellites, rather than the thousands in low Earth orbit,” says paper co-author Mariel Borowitz, associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts.

Borowitz and other researchers attribute these risky approaches in part to spacecraft often choosing a limited number of favorable orbits and the difficulty of monitoring the exact location of spacecraft that are more than 200,000 miles away.

“There is significant uncertainty about the exact location of objects around the moon. This, combined with the high cost associated with lunar missions, means that operators often undertake maneuvers even when the probability is very low — up to one in 10 million,” Borowitz explains.

The Georgia Tech research is the first published study showing short- and long-term collision risks in cislunar orbits. Using a series of Monte Carlo simulations, the researchers modeled the probability of various outcomes in a process that cannot be easily predicted because of random variables.

“Our analysis suggests that satellite operators must perform up to four maneuvers annually for each satellite for a fleet of 50 satellites in low lunar orbit (LLO),” said one of the study’s authors, Brian Gunter, associate professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering.

He noted that with only 10 satellites in LLO, a satellite might still need a yearly maneuver. This is supported by what current cislunar operators have reported.

Favored Orbits

Most close encounters are expected to occur near the moon’s equator, an intersection point between the orbit planes of commonly used “frozen” and low lunar orbits, which are preferred by many operators. Other possible regions of congestion can occur at the Lagrangian points, or regions where the gravitational forces of Earth and the moon balance out. Stable orbits in these regions have names such as Halo and Lyapunov orbits.

“Lagrangian points are an interesting place to put a satellite because it can maintain its orbit for long periods with very little maneuvering and thrusting. Frozen orbits, too. Anywhere outside these special areas, you have to spend a lot of fuel to maintain an orbit,” he said.

Gunter and other researchers worry that if operators aren’t coordinated about how they plan lunar missions, opportunities for collision will increase in these popular orbits.

“The close approaches were much more common than I would have intuitively anticipated,” says lead study author Stef Crum.

The 2024 graduate of Georgia Tech’s aerospace engineering doctoral program notes that, considering the small number of satellites in lunar orbit, the need for multiple maneuvers was “really surprising.”

Crum, who is also co-founder of Reditus Space, a startup he founded in 2024 to provide reusable orbital re-entry services, adds that the cislunar environment is so challenging because “it’s incredibly vast.”

His research also examines ways to improve object monitoring in cislunar space. Maintaining continuous custody of these objects is difficult because a target’s position must be monitored over the entire duration of its trajectory.

“That wasn’t feasible for translunar orbits, given the vast volume of cislunar orbit, which stretches multiple millions of kilometers in three dimensions,” he says.

By estimating a satellite’s orbit using observed data and constraining the presumed location and direction of the satellite, rather than continuous tracking (a process known as continuous custody), Crum greatly simplified the process.

“You no longer need thousands of satellites or a set of enormous satellites to cover all potential trajectories,” he explains. “Instead, one or a few satellites are required, and operators can lose custody for a time as long as the connection is reacquired later.”

Since the team started their study, there has been a lot of interest in the moon and cislunar activity — both NASA and China’s National Space Administration are planning to send humans to the moon. In the last two years, India, Japan, the U.S., China, Russia, and four private companies have attempted missions to the moon.

Why the Moon

Spacefaring nations’ intense interest in exploring the lunar surface comes as no surprise given that the moon offers a variety of resources, including solar power, water, oxygen, and metals like iron, titanium, and uranium. It also contains Helium-3, a potential fuel for nuclear fusion, and rare earth metals vital for modern technology. With the recent discovery of water ice, it could be a plentiful source for rocket fuel that can be created from liquifying oxygen and hydrogen needed to launch deep space missions to destinations like Mars. In February, Georgia Tech announced that researchers have developed new algorithms to help Intuitive Machines’ lunar lander find water ice on the moon.

Commercial space companies like Axiom Space and Redwire Space, as well as space agencies, are actively building lunar infrastructure, from satellite constellations to orbital platforms to support communication, navigation, scientific research, and eventually space tourism.

A key project involves the Lunar Gateway, a joint venture of NASA and international space agencies like ESA, JAXA, and CSA, as well as commercial partners. Humanity’s first space station around the moon will serve as a central hub for human exploration of the moon and is considered a stepping stone for future deep space missions.

Getting Ahead of a Gold Rush to the Moon

All this activity underscores the urgency to get out in front of potential crowding issues — something that hasn’t occurred in LEO, where near-miss collisions, or conjunctions, are frequent. LEO, which is 100 to 1,200 miles above the Earth’s surface, is host to more than 14,000 satellites and 120 million pieces of debris from launches, collisions, and wear and tear, reports Reuters.

“Using the near-Earth environment as an example, the space object population has gone from approximately 6,000 active satellites in the early 2020s to an anticipated 60,000 satellites in the coming decade if the projected number of large satellite constellations currently in the works gets deployed. That poses many challenges in terms of how we can manage that sustainably,” observed Gunter. “If something similar happens in the lunar environment, say if Artemis (NASA’s program to establish the first long-term presence on the moon) is successful and a lunar base is established, and there is discovery of volatiles or water deposits, it could initiate a kind of gold rush effect that might accelerate the number of actors in cislunar space.”

For this reason, Borowitz argues for the need to begin working on coordination, either in the planning of the orbits for future missions or by sharing information about the location of objects operating in lunar orbit. She pointed out that spacecraft outfitted for moon missions are expensive, making a collision highly costly. Also, debris from such a scenario would spread in an unpredictable way, which could be problematic for other objects.

Gunter agreed, noting, “If we’re not careful, we could be putting a lot of things in this same path. We must ensure we build out the cislunar orbital environment in a smart way, where we’re not intentionally putting spacecraft in the same orbital spaces. If we do that, everyone should be able to get what they want and not be in each other’s way.”

Borowitz says some coordination efforts are underway with the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space and the creation of an action team on lunar activities; however, international diplomacy is a time-consuming process, and it can be a challenge to keep pace with advancements in technology.

She contends that the Georgia Tech study could provide baseline data that “could be helpful for international coordination efforts, helping to ensure that countries better understand potential future risks.”

Gunter and Borowitz say that follow-on research for the team could involve looking into the Lunar Gateway orbit and other special orbits to see how crowded that space will likely get, and then do an end-to-end simulation of these orbits to determine the most effective way to build them out to avoid collision risks. Ultimately, they intend to develop guidelines to help ensure that future space actors headed to the moon can operate safely.

Summary sentence

A Georgia Tech study warns that rising lunar traffic could lead to costly collision avoidance maneuvers, urging better coordination to manage growing risks in cislunar space.

Summary

A Georgia Tech study warns that rising lunar traffic could lead to costly collision avoidance maneuvers, urging better coordination to manage growing risks in cislunar space.

Dateline

Fri, 07/18/2025 - 12:00

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Fri, 07/18/2025 - 09:53

Despite Equal Publication Success in Climate Science, Women Leave the Field Earlier Than Men

admin — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 17:26:46 +0000

Despite Equal Publication Success in Climate Science, Women Leave the Field Earlier Than Men admin Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:26

A study led by a Georgia Tech researcher analyzing more than a century of climate science publications has found that women in the field are just as productive and successful as their male peers. However, they tend to have shorter careers and therefore fewer total publications.

According to the study, women are 90% as likely as men to maintain their careers.

The research offers one of the deepest looks at publications and gender dynamics in climate science. The field is unique because it blends male-dominated areas of study — geosciences and engineering — with those that are majority-women, including sociology, public health, and life sciences.

The study examined more than 400,000 publications between 1903 and 2018. The findings don’t include topics such as salaries, number of women in the field, or tenure rates.

Read the entire story on the College of Engineering news page.

Subtitle

A century-long analysis of publication data looks at the gender dynamics in a field that combines male- and female-dominated focus areas.

Summary sentence

A study has found that women in climate science are just as productive and successful as their male peers when it comes to journal publications, but are 90% as likely as men to maintain their careers.

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Mon, 07/14/2025 - 12:00

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Mon, 07/14/2025 - 13:25

‘Biochar’ Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia’s Roads

admin — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 17:12:51 +0000

‘Biochar’ Can Naturally Clean the Pollution that Rain Washes Off Georgia’s Roads admin Thu, 07/10/2025 - 13:12

A charcoal-like material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors could be a cheap, sustainable way to keep pollution from washing off roadways and into Georgia’s lakes and rivers.

Engineers at Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern University have found that this biological charcoal, or biochar, can be mixed with soil and used along roadways to catch grimy rainwater and filter it naturally before it pollutes surface water.

Their tests found the biochar effectively cleans contaminants from the rainwater and works just as well in the sandy soils of the coastal plain as in the clays of north Georgia. Their biochar-soil mixture can be easily substituted for expensive material mined from the earth that’s typically used on roads.

Though they focused on Georgia, the researchers said the findings could easily apply across the U.S., providing a simple, natural way to keep road pollutants out of water sources. They published their approach in the Journal of Environmental Management.

Learn about their system on the College of Engineering website.

Summary sentence

A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.

Summary

A new study shows how the material made from leaves and branches that collect on forest floors can be mixed with local soil to filter out road grime before it reaches waterways.

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Thu, 07/10/2025 - 12:00

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Thu, 07/10/2025 - 13:12

How Do Scientists Calculate the Probability That an Asteroid Could Hit Earth?

admin — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 13:48:41 +0000

How Do Scientists Calculate the Probability That an Asteroid Could Hit Earth? admin Thu, 06/26/2025 - 09:48

I was preparing for my early morning class back in January 2025 when I received a notice regarding an asteroid called 2024 YR4. It said the probability it could hit Earth was unusually high.

As defending Earth from unexpected intruders such as asteroids is part of my expertise, I immediately started receiving questions from my students and colleagues about what was happening.

When scientists spot an asteroid whose trajectory might take it close to Earth, they monitor it frequently and calculate the probability that it might collide with our planet. As they receive more observational data, they get a better picture of what could happen.

Just having more data points early doesn’t make scientists’ predictions better. They need to keep following the asteroid as it moves through space to better understand its trajectory.

Reflecting on the incident a few months later, I wondered whether there might have been a better way for scientists to communicate about the risk with the public. We got accurate information, but as the questions I heard indicated, it wasn’t always enough to understand what it actually means.

Numbers Change Every Day

The 2024 YR24 asteroid has a diameter of about 196 feet (60 meters) – equivalent to approximately a 15-story building in length.

At the time of the announcement in January, the asteroid’s impact probability was reported to exceed 1%. The impact probability describes how likely a hazardous asteroid is to hit Earth. For example, if the impact probability is 1%, it means that in 1 of 100 cases, it hits Earth. One in 100 is kind of rare, but still too close for comfort if you’re talking about the odds of a collision that could devastate Earth.

Over time, though, further observations and analyses revealed an almost-zero chance of this asteroid colliding with Earth.

After the initial notice in January, the impact probability continuously increased up to 3.1% on Feb. 18, but dropped to 1.5% on Feb. 19. Then, the impact probability continuously went down, until it hit 0.004% on Feb. 24. As of June 15, it now has an impact probability of less than 0.0000081%.

The orbit of 2024 YR4 will take it close to Earth, but scientists have found the chance of a collision to be exceedingly low. NASA/JPL

But while the probability of hitting Earth went down, the probability of the asteroid hitting the Moon started increasing. It went up to 1.7% on Feb. 24. As of April 2, it is 3.8%.

If it hits the Moon, some ejected materials from this collision could reach the Earth. However, these materials would burn away when they enter the Earth’s thick atmosphere.

Impact Probability

To see whether an approaching object could hit Earth, researchers find out what an asteroid’s orbit looks like using a technique called astrometry. This technique can accurately determine an object’s orbit, down to only a few kilometers of uncertainty. But astrometry needs accurate observational data taken for a long time.

If an asteroid might get close to Earth, astronomers take observational data to better track the object’s path and eliminate uncertainty.

Any uncertainty in the calculation of the object’s orbit causes variations in the predicted solution. Instead of one precise orbit, the calculation usually gives scientists a cloud of its possible orbits. The ellipse enclosing these locations is called an error ellipse.

The impact probability describes how many orbital predictions in this ellipse hit the Earth.

Without enough observational data, the orbital uncertainty is high, so the ellipse tends to be large. In a large ellipse, there’s a higher chance that the ellipse “accidentally” includes Earth – even if the center is off the planet. So, even if an asteroid ultimately won’t hit Earth, its error ellipse might still include the planet before scientists collect enough data to narrow down the uncertainty.

As the level of uncertainty goes down, the ellipse shrinks. So, when Earth is inside a small error ellipse, the impact probability may become higher than when it’s inside a large error ellipse. Once the error ellipse shrinks enough that it no longer includes Earth, the impact probability goes down significantly. That’s what happened to 2024 YR4.

As the error ellipse shrinks, the chance of the asteroid hitting Earth either goes down or goes way up, if it ends up overlapping with the Earth. Toshi Hirabayashi

The impact probability is a single, practical value offering meaningful insight into an impact threat. However, just using the impact probability without any context may not provide meaningful guidelines to the public, as we saw with 2024 YR4.

Holding on and waiting for more data to refine a collision prediction, or introducing new metrics for assessing impacts on Earth, are alternative courses of action to provide people with better guidelines for future threats before adding confusion and fear.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Summary sentence

When scientists spot an asteroid whose trajectory might take it close to Earth, they monitor it frequently and calculate the probability that it might collide with our planet.

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Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

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Thu, 06/26/2025 - 09:48

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy

admin — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 13:52:41 +0000

Mars Rising as the New Frontier of Science and Strategy admin Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

More than half a century after the United States won the race to the moon, the White House is setting its sights on a new frontier: Mars. In a move reminiscent of the Apollo era, the administration has proposed landing Americans on the red planet by the end of 2026 — a bold initiative that has reignited national ambition and drawn comparisons to the space race of the 20th century.

At Georgia Tech, researchers are already considering the mission’s implications, from engineering challenges to international diplomacy. While the White House has framed the mission as a demonstration of American leadership, experts say its success will depend on collaboration — across disciplines, sectors, and borders.

“This is more than a space race,” said Christos Athanasiou, an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. “Mars isn’t just the next step for space exploration — it’s a stress test for everything we’ve learned about sustainability, resilience, and engineering under uncertainty.”

Engineering for the Red Planet

For Athanasiou, the Mars mission is a test of human ingenuity, creativity, and endurance. Unlike the moon, Mars is months away by spacecraft, with no quick return option. That distance introduces a host of engineering challenges that must be solved before a single boot touches Martian soil.

“Ensuring astronaut safety on such a long-duration mission requires us to understand how the Earth materials we will be using in our mission behave in extraterrestrial conditions,” he said.

In his recent TEDx talk, Athanasiou emphasized that the mission must also consider its environmental impact. Mars may be barren, but it is not immune to contamination. Athanasiou believes that strategies used for environmental remediation on Earth — such as waste recycling, habitat sustainability, and pollution control — can be adapted to protect the Martian environment.

“If we can build structures that survive Mars using recycled materials, AI, and Earth-born ingenuity, we’ll unlock entirely new ways to live — both out there and back here,” he said.

Reading the Martian Landscape

James Wray, a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, has spent years analyzing Mars’ surface using data from orbiters and rovers. He sees the planet as both a scientific treasure trove and a logistical puzzle.

“Mars has vast lava plains, dust storms, and steep canyons that pose real risks to human settlement,” Wray said.

But beneath the challenges lies opportunity. Mars is home to significant deposits of water ice, especially near the poles and just below the surface in some mid-latitude regions. That water could be used not only for drinking but also for producing oxygen and rocket fuel — critical resources for long-term habitation and return missions.

“The presence of water ice near the surface is a game changer. It could support life, and more importantly, it could support us,” Wray said.

He also noted that Mars’ thin atmosphere — just 1% the density of Earth’s — complicates everything from landing spacecraft to shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation. “We’ve learned a lot from robotic missions. Now it’s time to apply that knowledge to human exploration.”

Diplomacy Beyond Earth

Lincoln Hines, an assistant professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, says that the Mars mission could have significant diplomatic implications. “The Mars mission has little to no bearing on space security; it has no military value,” he said. However, he noted that international cooperation could still play a valuable role in reducing the financial burden of such a costly endeavor.

Hines warned that shifting U.S. priorities from the moon to Mars could strain the international partnerships built through the Artemis program. He explained that some countries may view the Mars initiative as a distraction from the more immediate and economically promising lunar goals. Political instability in the U.S., he added, could further erode trust in its long-term commitments. “Countries may lose faith that the United States is a reliable partner to cooperate with for its lunar program if Mars seems to be the new priority,” he said.

He also pointed to existing legal frameworks like the Outer Space Treaty, which prohibits sovereign claims on celestial bodies, and the Rescue Agreement, which obliges nations to assist astronauts in distress. While these agreements provide a foundation, Hines emphasized that they don’t fully address the complexities of future Mars missions.

Establishing international norms for Mars exploration, he said, will be challenging. “Norms are really hard to develop,” Hines explained, noting that countries often hesitate to commit to rules without assurance that others will do the same. Still, he suggested that Mars — with its limited material value — might offer a rare opportunity for cooperation, if nations are willing to engage in good faith.

Subtitle

Georgia Tech contributes to the national vision with research in engineering, science, and policy.

Summary sentence

As the White House accelerates plans for a 2026 crewed mission to Mars, Georgia Tech experts highlight the engineering, scientific, and diplomatic challenges that will shape the success—and sustainability—of humanity’s next giant leap.

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Wed, 06/25/2025 - 12:00

media@gatech.edu

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Siobhan Rodriguez
Senior Media Relations Representative
Institute Communications

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Mars mission

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Christos Athanasiou

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Wed, 06/25/2025 - 09:52

Ocean ‘Greening’ at Poles Could Spell Changes for Fisheries

admin — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 18:16:41 +0000

Ocean ‘Greening’ at Poles Could Spell Changes for Fisheries admin Thu, 06/19/2025 - 14:16

Ocean waters are getting greener at the poles and bluer toward the equator, according to an analysis of satellite data published in Science on June 19. The change reflects shifting concentrations of a green pigment called chlorophyll made by phytoplankton, photosynthetic marine organisms at the base of the ocean food chain. If the trend continues, marine food webs could be affected, with potential repercussions for global fisheries.

“In the ocean, what we see based on satellite measurements is that the tropics and the subtropics are generally losing chlorophyll, whereas the polar regions — the high-latitude regions — are greening,” says first author Haipeng Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher at Georgia Tech working with Susan Lozier, dean of the College of Sciences and Betsy Middleton and John Sutherland Chair at Georgia Tech and Nicolas Cassar, the Lee Hill Snowdon Bass Chair at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

Since the 1990s, many studies have documented enhanced greening on land, where global average leaf cover is increasing due to rising temperatures and other factors. But documenting photosynthesis across the ocean has been more difficult, according to the team. Although satellite images can provide data on chlorophyll production at the ocean’s surface, the picture is incomplete.

The study analyzed satellite data collected from 2003 to 2022 by a NASA instrument that combs the entire Earth every two days, measuring light wavelength. The researchers were looking for changes in chlorophyll concentration, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass. For consistency, they focused on the open ocean and excluded data from coastal waters.

“There are more suspended sediments in coastal waters, so optical properties are different than in the open ocean,” Zhao explains.

The satellite data revealed broad trends in color, indicating that chlorophyll is decreasing in subtropical and tropical regions and increasing toward the poles. Building on that finding, the team examined how chlorophyll concentration is changing at specific latitudes. To work around background noise and gaps in data, they had to get creative.

“We borrowed concepts from economics called the Lorenz curve and the Gini index, which together show how wealth is distributed in a society. So, we thought, let’s apply these to see whether the proportion of the ocean that holds the most chlorophyll has changed over time,” Cassar says.

They found similar but opposing trends in chlorophyll concentration over the two-decade period. Green areas became greener, particularly in the northern hemisphere, while blue regions got even bluer.

“It’s like rich people getting richer and the poor getting poorer,” Zhao says.

Next, the team examined how the patterns they observed were affected by several variables, including sea surface temperature, wind speed, light availability and mixed layer depth — a measure that reflects mixing in the ocean’s top layer by wind, waves and surface currents. Warming seas correlated with changes in chlorophyll concentration, but the other variables showed no significant associations.

The authors cautioned that their findings cannot be attributed to climate change.

“The study period was too short to rule out the influence of recurring climate phenomena such as El Niño,” Lozier says. “Having measurements for the next several decades will be important for determining influences beyond climate oscillations.”

If poleward shifts in phytoplankton continue, however, they could affect the global carbon cycle. During photosynthesis, phytoplankton act like sponges, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When these organisms die and sink to the ocean bottom, carbon goes down with them. The location and depth of that stored carbon can influence climate warming.

“If carbon sinks deeper or in places where water doesn’t resurface for a long time, it stays stored much longer. In contrast, shallow carbon can return to the atmosphere more quickly, reducing the effect of phytoplankton on carbon storage,” Cassar says.

Additionally, a persistent decline in phytoplankton in equatorial regions could alter fisheries that many low- and middle-income nations, such as those in the Pacific Islands, rely on for food and economic development — especially if that decline carries over to coastal regions, according to the authors.

“Phytoplankton are at the base of the marine food chain. If they are reduced, then the upper levels of the food chain could also be impacted, which could mean a potential redistribution of fisheries,” Cassar says.

Funding: National Science Foundation and NASA.

Citation: “Greener green and bluer blue: Ocean poleward greening over the past two decades,” Zhao H., Manizza M., Lozier S.M. and Cassar N. Science, June 19, 2025, DOI: 10.1126/science.adr9715

This story by Julie Leibach is shared with the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment newsroom.

Summary sentence

Ocean waters are getting greener at the poles and bluer toward the equator, according to an analysis of satellite data published in Science on June 19.

Summary

Ocean waters are getting greener at the poles and bluer toward the equator, according to an analysis of satellite data published in Science. The change reflects shifting concentrations of chlorophyll made by phytoplankton. If the trend continues, marine food webs could be affected, with potential impacts on fisheries near the equator and carbon sequestration near the poles.

Dateline

Thu, 06/19/2025 - 12:00

jess@cos.gatech.edu

Contact

Media Contacts:

Jess Hunt-Ralston
Director of Communications
College of Sciences
Georgia Tech

Julie Leibach
Senior Science Writer
Nicholas School of the Environment
Duke University

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poleward greening

oceans

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Susan Lozier

Haipeng Zhao

School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

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682820

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Thu, 06/19/2025 - 14:16

Taking Shape: The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

admin — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 15:14:37 +0000

Taking Shape: The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design admin Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:14

The earth is finally beginning to make way for The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. Earlier this year, what used to be a parking lot at the corner of Ferst Drive and State Street began its transformation to bigger and better things; once completed, The Kendeda Building is expected to become the most environmentally advanced education and research facility in the Southeast.

“Seeing the fencing go up and the grading equipment roll in was a major milestone,” said John DuConge, senior project manager for Facilities Management. “Given the very unique requirements of The Kendeda Building, we knew we would spend a considerable amount of time on the front end designing and planning this project with our project partners: Lord Aeck Sargent and their team of consultants.”

DuConge added that the building is expected to come together rather quickly, with the goal of substantial completion by May 2019. Move-in activities along with the operational ramp-up is expected to commence that summer in preparation for the start of fall semester classes in August.

Site work is scheduled through April to prepare for constructing the basement level, which includes the project’s 45,000-gallon cistern — a key element of the net-positive water requirement. After the foundation is set later this spring, the steel and wood structures will be put in place, giving the building its framework. Other visible installations will include the more than 900 photovoltaic panels that will be installed later this fall and winter.

More Than Just Construction

But designing and constructing the building is really only one aspect of achieving Living Building Challenge 3.1 full certification. Operating and maintaining the building are critical factors, too. So, selecting the appropriate occupants to properly steward the Challenge principles and abide by the strict building operating requirements is equally important.

“The Kendeda Building will be one of only a few Living Building Challenge-certified facilities that will serve such a large group of occupants on a daily basis,” said Michael Gamble, director of Graduate Studies and associate professor for the School of Architecture. “Everyone in the building, including students, staff, and faculty, is responsible for complementing and upholding the basic building principles in how we learn and teach.”

One of The Kendeda Building’s featured programs includes the Global Change Program, which officially launched in March. This new initiative aims to coordinate and grow educational and research activities focused on providing solutions and creating economic opportunities at the intersection of global change, climate change, and energy. The program will be directed by Kim Cobb, ADVANCE professor and Georgia Power Chair in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Early program activities will focus on curriculum design for undergraduates, including creation of an “Energy and Climate” minor and a climate solutions lab.

Gamble further explained that the College of Sciences will take the lead on utilizing the class labs for several core courses (including general ecology), which serve a broad cohort of students. As such, the instructors are refining their teaching methodologies in the labs to accommodate water and energy use requirements.

Along with the College of Sciences, courses from a number of colleges will also be offered in the building including English 1101 and 1102, advanced energy modeling, and vertically integrated projects. In addition, capstone teams will also have space in The Kendeda Building.

As the instructional programming is being developed for when the building opens in Summer 2019, several learning opportunities are already taking place. Last year, the Academic and Research Council announced a campuswide call for proposals for research, teaching, and community-based pilot ventures connected to The Kendeda Building and the Living Building Challenge. Currently, six interdisciplinary research projects are underway:

Workflows and Data Modeling in Support of the Material Sourcing Requirement of the Living Building Challenge - School of Architecture and Digital Design Lab.
Living Building Equity Champions - Office of Institute Diversity.
Biologically Inspired Sustainable Building Design Challenges for Middle School Engineers: Expanding the Educational Reach of the Living Building at Georgia Tech - CEISMC and Center for Biologically Inspired Design.
Documenting the Effects of the Living Building on Biological Diversity and Succession - School of Biological Sciences.
Pilot Project Proposal for Living Building Monitoring Systems - Brooks Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems and School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Living Building Community Crowdsourcing: Developing an Interactive Augmented Reality Viewer to Capture Community Feedback - School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

As these inaugural pilot projects conclude later this year, the Academic and Research Council is working to organize a second round of pilot programs focused on energy. The goal will be to support faculty- and student-led teams in developing innovative and creative solutions that could help address strict energy requirements such as the Living Building Challenge’s net-positive energy standard.

For more information, visit LivingBuilding.gatech.edu and livingbuilding.kendedafund.org.

Summary sentence

The earth is finally beginning to make way for The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.

Summary

The earth is finally beginning to make way for The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design.

Dateline

Wed, 04/18/2018 - 12:00

Contact

Rachael Pocklington
Institute Communications

Keywords

living Building

The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design

The Kendeda Fund

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Campus and Community

Earth and Environment

Mercury ID

605268

Source updated

Wed, 06/18/2025 - 11:14

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