New EGU journal SOIL to be launched at the 2014 General Assembly 17 December 2013 SOIL, the newest interactive and open access journal of the EGU, is dedicated to the publication and discussion of high-quality research in the field of soil system sciences. It will open for submissions in May 2014, following the journal’s official launch at the EGU 2014 General Assembly. Read more
9th EGU Alexander von Humboldt International Conference 16 December 2013 The next AvH conference is on High Impact Natural Hazards Related to the Euro-Mediterranean Region, and will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, from 24–28 March 2014. The deadline for abstracts is 31 January 2014. Read more
GIFT teachers and EGU scientists: apply now to take part in I’m a Geoscientist, get me out of here! 13 December 2013 The EGU are funding a European-wide educational project to provide school students with the opportunity to meet and interact with real scientists. Read more
Welcome to a new Imaggeo! 9 December 2013 The EGU’s open access geoscience image repository has a new and improved home. Visit the all new Imaggeo at imaggeo.egu.eu. Read more
Geoengineering approaches to reduce climate change unlikely to succeed Press release 5 December 2013 Two German researchers used a simple energy balance analysis to explain how the Earth’s water cycle responds differently to heating by sunlight than it does to warming due to a stronger atmospheric greenhouse effect. Further, they show that this difference implies that reflecting sunlight to reduce temperatures may have unwanted effects on the Earth’s rainfall patterns. The results are now published in ESD. Read more
Results of the EGU Autumn 2013 elections 2 December 2013 The EGU election for the next EGU president/vice-president and general secretary closed on 01 December. The results are now available on the Elections page of this website. The EGU is thankful to all those who used their voting right. Active participation in elections ensures continuation of the well-established bottom-up structure of our Union! Read more
New edition of GeoQ out now! 2 December 2013 The December issue of the quarterly newsletter of the European Geosciences Union is dedicated to climate. Of highlight are the articles on new climate research and a piece from the European Commission Directorate-General for Climate Action. Read more
Using moving cars to measure rainfall Press release 28 November 2013 Drivers on a rainy day regulate the speed of their windshield wipers according to rain intensity: faster in heavy rain and slower in light rain. This simple observation has inspired researchers from the University of Hanover in Germany to come up with ‘RainCars’, an initiative that aims to use GPS-equipped moving cars as devices to measure rainfall. The most recent results of the project are now published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences. Read more
GIFT goes to Africa! Applications now open for Southern African teachers to participate in the 2014 workshop 27 November 2013 Southern African teachers can now apply to participate in the first UNESCO-EGU-ESA Geosciences Information for Teachers (GIFT) workshop. Selected teachers will receive a travel/hotel stipend and free registration to the meeting, which is taking place in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, on 26–28 February 2014. The topic of the workshop is Climate Change and Human Adaptation. Read more
EGU2014: Applying for financial support to attend the General Assembly 12 November 2013 A limited amount of the overall budget of the EGU General Assembly is reserved to assist young scientists and established scientists from low and lower middle income countries who wish to present their work at the meeting. Scientists who wish to apply for financial support should submit an abstract, on which they are first authors, by 29 November 2013. Read more
How pigeons may smell their way home Press release 5 November 2013 Homing pigeons, like other birds, are extraordinary navigators, but how they manage to find their way back to their lofts is still debated. To navigate, birds require a ‘map’ (to tell them home is south, for example) and a ‘compass’ (to tell them where south is), with the sun and the Earth’s magnetic field being the preferred compass systems. A new Biogeosciences paper provides evidence that the information pigeons use as a map is in fact available in the atmosphere: odours and winds allow them to find their way home. Read more
Voting for the next EGU president/vice-president and general secretary 5 November 2013 From now until 1 December 2013, EGU members can vote in the Autumn 2013 EGU Election. If you are an active member of the Union, you should have already received an email with a personalised voting link. Remember that active participation in EGU elections ensures continuation of the well-established bottom-up structure of our Union! Read more
The oldest ice core – Finding a 1.5 million-year record of Earth’s climate Press release 5 November 2013 How far into the past can ice-core records go? Scientists have now identified regions in Antarctica they say could store information about Earth’s climate and greenhouse gases extending as far back as 1.5 million years, almost twice as old as the oldest ice core drilled to date. The results are published today in Climate of the Past. Read more
EGU journals to display article-level metrics 15 October 2013 Copernicus Publications, the publisher of the EGU open access journals, has just launched article-level metrics (ALMs) for all its journals. Read more
EGU Science Journalism Fellowships (up to €5k) – call for applications Press release 15 October 2013 The European Geosciences Union (EGU) is offering fellowships for journalists to report on ongoing research in the geosciences. Successful applicants will receive up to €5k to cover expenses related to their projects, including following scientists on location. Read more
EGU announces 2014 awards and medals 14 October 2013 The EGU has named the 43 recipients of next year’s Union Medals and Awards, Division Medals, and Division Outstanding Young Scientist Awards. Read more
Terrestrial ecosystems at risk of major shifts as temperatures increase Press release 8 October 2013 Over 80% of the world’s ice-free land is at risk of profound ecosystem transformation by 2100, a new study reveals. “Essentially, we would be leaving the world as we know it,” says Sebastian Ostberg of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany. Ostberg and collaborators studied the critical impacts of climate change on landscapes and have now published their results in Earth System Dynamics. Read more
Tiny plankton could have big impact on climate Press release 13 September 2013 As the climate changes and oceans’ acidity increases, tiny plankton seem set to succeed. An international team of marine scientists has found that the smallest plankton groups thrive under elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. This could cause an imbalance in the food web as well as decrease ocean CO2 uptake, an important regulator of global climate. The results of the study, conducted off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, in 2010, are now compiled in a special issue published in Biogeosciences. Read more
Educators: apply now to take part in the 2014 GIFT workshop! 10 September 2013 The Geosciences Information For Teachers workshop is taking place on April 27–30 2014 at the EGU General Assembly in Vienna, Austria. The topic of the 2014 edition of GIFT is Our Changing Planet and the workshop will explore some of the recent complex changes of our environment, particularly in the framework of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Read more
Using digital SLRs to measure the height of Northern Lights Press release 6 September 2013 Scientific research doesn’t often start from outreach projects. Yet, Ryuho Kataoka from the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Japan, came up with an idea for a new method to measure the height of aurora borealis after working on a 3D movie for a planetarium. Read more
