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Fire and rain and the smoke that lingers
Scientists highlight the impact of huge pyrocumulonimbus clouds.
A pyrocumulonimbus cloud generated by the Orroral Valley bushfire burning to the south of Canberra on 31 January. Credit: Brook Mitchell / Getty Images
Wildfire-driven thunderstorms, such as those created in Australia a year ago, produce lingering impacts that may affect much of the globe, scientists have told the virtual annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Such storms occur when fires funnel hot air upward, much like a massive chimney, says David Peterson, a meteorologist at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). When conditions are right, they can create giant pyrocumulonimbus clouds (fire-driven thunderstorms) that can punch all the way into the stratosphere.
The Energy 202: The campaign heats up for Biden to pick a Native American for his Cabinet Dino Grandoni
with Alexandra Ellerbeck Calls for Joe Biden to pick a Native American to run the Department of the Interior are growing louder in the days before the president-elect is expected to announce his environmental team. An increasing number of liberal members of Congress, climate activists, Hollywood celebrities and tribal groups are coalescing in support of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Laguna, to become the first descendant of North America’s original people to be the next interior secretary. Another person being considered for the position, former deputy secretary Michael L. Connor, is also an enrolled member of New Mexico’s Taos Pueblo.
Tulane seeks more diversity in earth science grad programs
A Tulane University department has been accepted in a national program to increase diversity among graduate students in the earth sciences.
Tulane’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences is joining the AGU Bridge Program. The university said in a news release Thursday that the program is designed to recruit and train students from under-represented groups in geoscience graduate schools.
AGU is also known as the American Geophysical Union. It is the nation’s largest scientific society in earth sciences, according to Tulane.
African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Pacific Islander, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian students who join the Bridge Program can take advantage of a free common graduate school application that will be shared with multiple partner institutions.
Scientific American
Record-breaking blazes in Australia spewed as many particles into the sky as a volcanic eruption
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Satellite view of burned land and and bushfires on Kangaroo Island, Australia on January 9, 2020. Credit: Alamy
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Record-breaking wildfires in Australia at the start of the year caused an extraordinary weather phenomenon. They spawned a spree of towering fire-induced thunderclouds, which catapulted smoke 20 miles into the atmosphere.
Almost 12 months later, some of that smoke is still drifting around the planet.
These “pyrocumulonimbus” events, or “pyroCbs,” are impressive but not uncommon. They form when the heat from a wildfire strengthens currents of rising air in the atmosphere, generating large storm clouds and sending smoke spiraling skyward.