In the 1990s, scientists began to use the term "atmospheric river" to refer to strips of water vapor in the air that can be as narrow as a few hundred miles wide, but thousands of miles long. They ...

Atmospheric rivers are jets of sky-born water vapor that transport tropical moisture to higher latitudes, and they can be a blessing. In some years they provide 60% of California’s annual ...

A plume of upper-atmospheric lithium pollution observed in February 2025 has been attributed to the re-entry of a specific rocket stage. The results, published in Communications Earth & Environment, ...

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide made history last month by climbing to their highest seasonal peak available in historical records, a team of researchers reported. For the first time ever ...

A herd of light-colored cattle grazing on brown grassland, with a few facing the camera and others scattered across an open field. Satellite data estimate that methane emissions from livestock rose 15 ...

When a series of back-to-back atmospheric rivers hammered the West Coast in December 2025, the storms killed at least five people, triggered devastating flooding across every western state and forced ...

Cities are rapidly becoming the defining residential space of human life. Over 55% of the global population lived in urban areas in 2018, a proportion projected to reach nearly 68% by 2050, according ...