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Predicting Lightning Strikes

November 19, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Lightning is one of the most unpredictable phenomena in nature. Approximately 100 lightning bolts strike earth’s surface every second, and each lightning bolt can contain up to one billion volts of electricity. Lightning regularly kills both people and animals and sets homes and forests on fire. It’s also been known to ground airplanes.

Researchers at EPFL – a research institute and university in Switzerland – have developed a novel way to predict where and when lightning will strike. The system relies on a combination of standard data from weather stations and artificial intelligence to predict lightning strikes to the nearest 10 to 30 minutes and within a radius of less than 20 miles. The simple and inexpensive system was outlined in a research paper recently published in Climate and Atmospheric Science, a Nature partner journal.

According to researchers, the current systems for predicting lightning strikes are slow, expensive, and complex, relying on external data acquired by satellite and radar. The new inexpensive system from EPFL uses real time data that can be obtained from any weather station, meaning it can cover remote regions that are out of radar and satellite range and where communication networks are lacking. The quick predictions from the system allow alerts to be issued before a storm has even formed.

The system uses a machine-learning algorithm that’s been trained to recognize conditions that lead to lightning. The researchers took into account atmospheric pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed, among other things. After training the algorithm, the system was able to predict lightning strikes accurately nearly 80% of the time.

This system is a simple way to predict a complex phenomenon.

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Using AI to predict where and when lightning will strike

Photo, posted December 14, 2018, courtesy of Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Bad News For The Aletsch Glacier

November 5, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland is the largest glacier in the Alps. Every year, it attracts thousands of visitors from around the world. The huge ice flow in the Upper Valais region of Switzerland is an Alpine tourist attraction second only to the Matterhorn. In the summer, meltwater from the glacier is an important water source in the dry Rhone Valley.

As the climate continues to warm, the massive glacier continues to shrink. The tongue of the glacier has receded by about a kilometer since the year 2000 and scientists predict that this trend will continue over the coming years.

Detailed simulations by researchers at ETH Zurich assessed the future of the Aletsch Glacier under different scenarios related to the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and the resulting warming.

The best-case scenario in which global warming is limited to less than 2 degrees Celsius would result in the glacier being half the size it is today by the end of the century. If the global community does not pull together quickly to take effective measures against global warming, Switzerland could warm by as much as 4 to 8 degrees and by 2100, what was once the largest glacier in the Alps will be a couple of measly patches of ice.

To understand how much global warming has already impacted the glacier to date, even if somehow the climate remains the same as it has been for the past 10 years going forward, the ice volume of the Aletsch glacier will still decrease by nearly half its volume by the end of the century. The glacier is no longer in equilibrium with the climate.

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Gloomy forecast for the Aletsch Glacier

Photo, posted April 7, 2007, courtesy of Jessica Gardner via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

A Record European Heatwave

August 1, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Sahara Desert winds blasted Europe in June, especially during a five-day heatwave that set many records. Between that and weather elsewhere, June was not only one of the hottest ever for that continent, but also for the world as a whole.

In Europe, the average temperature was about 5 degrees Fahrenheit above the June average of a century ago. The global temperature was nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher.

The European heatwave broke temperature records in France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Spain. A temperature above 114 degrees was recorded near the French city of Nîmes.

The intense heat lead to wildfires in Spain and Germany, and widespread disruption across Europe. Undoubtedly, the heatwave has caused many premature deaths, but it will take some time to compile those statistics. The European heatwave of 2003 caused more than 70,000 premature deaths.

According to calculations by climate scientists, the record-breaking heatwave in June was made at least 5 and as much as 100 times more likely by climate change. Global heating caused by the carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels and other human activities means that heatwaves are becoming more probable and severe. So-called attribution studies estimate how much more likely and severe such events are.

The researchers used temperature records stretching back to 1901 to assess the probability of a heatwave last month and in the past. They also examined climate change models to assess the impact of global heating. More than 230 attribution studies to date around the world have found that 95% of heatwaves were made more likely or worse by climate change.

It was the hottest June on record in Europe by a country mile and there are likely to be more months like it in the future.

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Climate Change Made Last Month’s European Heatwave At Least Five Times More Likely

Photo, posted February 13, 2018, courtesy of Guilhem Vellut via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Energy Vault

May 28, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

A potentially transformative utility-scale energy storage technology has won a 2019 “World Changing Idea” award from Fast Company magazine. Known as the Energy Vault, the technology seeks to be the successor to the granddaddy of grid energy storage: pumped hydro.

Shifting water between higher and lower reservoirs is still basis of the vast majority of global grid storage capacity. But it is limited both by its unique location needs and by environmental regulations.

A start-up company also called Energy Vault and based in both Switzerland and Southern California has come up with an extremely creative grid storage concept. The technology consists of a six-armed crane that stacks huge concrete blocks using a currently available source of cheap and abundant grid electricity, and then drops them down to generate electricity when needed.

The system is said to operate at about 90% efficiency and can deliver long-duration storage at half the prevailing price on the market today.

A full-scale Energy Vault plant, called an Evie, would look like a 35-story crane with six arms, surrounded by thousands of manmade concrete blocks, weighing nearly 40 tons each. When charging, the plant will stack the blocks around itself higher and higher in a Babel-like tower. To discharge, the cranes drop the blocks down, generating power from the speedy descent. This configuration can deliver 4 megawatts of power and store about 35 megawatt-hours of energy.

There isn’t even a factory needed. The company would deliver a crane from a manufacturer. The crane will then assemble the blocks onsite using recycled concrete. Operation is then fully automated. The system is expected to run for 30 or 40 years.

So far there is only a one-seventh scale demo unit in Switzerland. But this is a very intriguing idea.

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Energy Vault Wins World Changing Idea Award 2019 from Fast Company for Transformative Utility-Scale Energy Storage Technology

Photo courtesy of Energy Vault.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Cleaning And Splitting Water

December 18, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Researchers at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed a photocatalytic system that can be used to degrade pollutants present in water while simultaneously producing hydrogen that can be captured and put to use.

Capturing CO2 From The Air

November 9, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

It is increasingly clear that the rate at which carbon dioxide emissions are being reduced is not sufficient to prevent dire consequences of climate change. It appears that it will be necessary to try to actually remove carbon dioxide from the air. Such actions are termed “negative emissions.”

A Million Electric Cars

September 25, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Last year, China was the first country to reach the milestone of having one million electric cars. This year, China will add another million plug-in vehicles. Of course, with its huge population, China sells four times as many cars in total per year as any other country.

Renewable Powered Cities

March 29, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Cities are responsible for 70% of the world’s energy-related CO2 emissions and it appears that they are taking responsibility for reducing them. Over 7,000 mayors around the world have signed up to the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, thereby pledging to act on climate change.

Fish In Small Lakes

March 28, 2018 By EarthWise 1 Comment

There are millions of lakes on our planet. Many are quite large such as the Great Lakes in our country and Lake Victoria in Africa, but one-third of the world’s standing water is contained in lakes and ponds of 25 acres or less. Many of these lakes are found in remote, often mountainous areas with no inflow and outflow. Nevertheless, in most of these lakes there are fish.

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