#AGU21 highlights from Friday, Dec. 17

By: AGU Staff on 17 December 2021 at 3:58 pm

Highlights from Friday, December 17:

#AGU21 concluded with a busy day of sharing scientific findings and identifying innovative solutions for a rapidly changing environment. Thanks for a great conference, and we hope to see you next year in Chicago!

Eos coverage of #AGU21 today:

Charting the “Bloody” Brine Flows from an Antarctic Glacier. Photographs and field observations yield a more complete historical record of the ebbs and flows of the so-called Blood Falls on Taylor Glacier.
A Gas Pipeline Investigation Built on Community-Centered Ideas. From developing a research question to enacting solutions, environmental justice requires community engagement in every step of the scientific process.
No Relief from Rain: Climate Change Fuels Compound Disasters. Climate change is increasing the risk of fire-rain events, raising mudslide concerns in fire-prone communities.
Can Uranus’s Rings Reveal the Planet’s Deepest Secrets? Planetary rings can act as seismometers that respond to changes deep within a planet.

#AGU21 in the news:

2021 brought a wave of extreme weather disasters. Scientists say worse lies ahead. Washington Post, 17 December. Scores of studies presented this week at the world’s largest climate science conference offered an unequivocal and unsettling message: Climate change is fundamentally altering what kind of weather is possible, and its fingerprint can be found in the rising number of disasters that have claimed lives and upended livelihoods around the world.
Drone Sails Into Category 4 Hurricane, Sends Back Incredible Video and Data. Gizmodo, 17 December. HD video isn’t the only thing Saildrone captured. Data from the heart of the storm could help researchers, too.
Antarctic ice shelf could crack, raise seas by feet within decade, scientists warn. NBC News, 17 December. Thwaites, the widest glacier in the world, has doubled its rate of melt in the last 30 years, a researcher said.
Perseverance Makes Surprising Discoveries About Mars’ Ancient Past. Forbes, 16 December. Scientists with NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover mission have discovered that the bedrock of the landing site inside Jezero Crater likely formed from red-hot magma.

Here are some highlights from Day 5:

Scientists from NASA discussed the “biggest story in solar system”: their Juno mission to Jupiter.
A panel from the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (also known as COP26) delivered a plenary on progress and prospects and the role of the larger AGU community in them.