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Drivers and impacts of westerly moisture transport events in East Africa

Anomalous westerly winds bring moisture into East Africa, increasing precipitation in the region. Using the first spatially unconstrained framework to detect this circulation and associated precipitation, we show westerlies contribute up to 60% of rainfall in Tanzania in January and February, and are more likely when the Madden Julian Oscillation and/or tropical cyclones are active over the Indian Ocean. This work highlights the complex interactions driving regional precipitation variability.

Automated mask generation in citizen science smartphone photos and their value for mapping plant species in drone imagery

We introduce an automated approach for generating segmentation masks for citizen science plant photos, making them applicable to computer vision models. This framework effectively transforms citizen science data into a data treasure for segmentation models for plant species identification in aerial imagery. Using automatically labeled photos, we train segmentation models for mapping tree species in drone imagery, showcasing their potential for forestry, agriculture, and biodiversity monitoring.

Reviews and syntheses: Best practices for the application of marine GDGTs as proxy for paleotemperatures: sampling, processing, analyses, interpretation, and archiving protocols

Many academic laboratories worldwide process environmental samples for analysis of membrane lipid molecules of archaea, for the reconstruction of past environmental conditions. However, the sample workup scheme involves many steps, each of which has a risk of contamination or bias, affecting the results. This paper reviews steps involved in sampling, extraction and analysis of lipids, interpretation and archiving of the data. This ensures reproducible, reusable, comparable and consistent data.

Milankovitch theory “as an initial value problem”: Implications of the long memory of ice advection

We describe a so far unrecognized physical phenomenon of orbital forcing modifying the terrestrial physics in such a way that instead of erasing the memory of initial conditions this memory is extended and initial values become major governing parameters.

Estimates of Atlantic meridional heat transport from spatiotemporal fusion of Argo, altimetry, and gravimetry data

Understanding how heat moves through the ocean is crucial to predicting future climate change confidently. This requires accurate records of heat transport throughout the ocean, but these are challenging to obtain by direct ocean observation. Here, we combine in situ and satellite-based observations to generate estimates of meridional heat transport for the period 2004–2020 at 3-month resolution across the Atlantic Ocean with improved accuracy compared to existing indirectly inferred estimates.

Global and regional sea-surface temperature changes over the Marine Isotopic Stage 9e and Termination IV

To better understand climate change in past warm periods, we studied global ocean temperature during an interglacial period about 330,000 years ago. Combining 98 records on common timeline, we found regional differences in the timing and amplitude of changes, which smoothed the global signal. We also show that the deglacial warming rate was about three times lower than today's global warming rate.

Formation of mega-scale glacial lineations far inland beneath the onset of the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream

The subglacial landforms beneath actively fast-flowing ice in Greenland have not been explored in detail, as digital elevation models have not had a high enough resolution to see these features. We use swath radar imaging to visualise landforms at the onset of an ice stream, revealing mega-scale glacial lineations, that would usually be assumed to be indicative of faster ice flow than the current velocities. Interpretation of the landscape also gives an indication of the properties of the bed.

Properties of large-amplitude kilometer-scale field-aligned currents at auroral latitudes, as derived from Swarm satellites

By using magnetic field recordings sampled at 50 Hz by Swarm A and C satellites around the quasi-coplanar orbit configuration, near 1 October 2021, we investigate the properties of kilometer-scale field-aligned currents (FACs) at auroral latitudes. The kilometer-scale (0.2-5 km) FACs exhibit short-lived (<1 s) randomly appearing large current density spikes (partly exceeding 100 µA m-2). Preferred occurrences are the noon to prenoon (nightside to dusk) sector around 80° (70°) MLat, respectively.

Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf cavity observations reveal multiyear sea ice dynamics and deepwater warming in Pine Island Bay, West Antarctica

Thwaites Glacier is retreating due to warm ocean water melting it from below, but its thick ice shelf makes this heat hard to monitor. Using hot-water drilling, we placed sensors beneath the floating ice, revealing how surface freezing in Pine Island Bay influences heat at depth. Alongside gradual warming, we found bursts of heat that could speed up melting at the grounding zone, which may become more common as sea ice declines.

Review of interactive open-access publishing with community-based open peer review for improved scientific discourse and quality assurance

Over 25 years, the European Geosciences Union (EGU) has demonstrated the success, viability and benefits of interactive open-access (OA) publishing with public peer review in its journals, its publishing platform EGUsphere and virtual compilations. The article summarizes the evolution of the EGU/Copernicus publications and of OA publishing with interactive public peer review at large by placing the EGU/Copernicus publications in the context of current and future global open science.

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