A new study helps explain why unusually “hot and dry” summers can still occur frequently over a region that has undergone long-term warming and wetting.

A vicarious calibration model enables quantitative applications of Fengyun-3 satellite ocean color data

Tidal currents flood and ebb with the tide, but their motion does not average to zero everywhere over a tidal cycle. 

A wild vegetable treasured in Northeast China for both its nutritional value and medicinal properties has had its entire genetic code deciphered for the first time.

For decades, plant breeders have worked with collapsed genome assemblies that merge two parental haplotypes into one, losing critical genetic information in the process. 

A recent study published in National Science Review has revealed that the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), traditionally regarded as a single climate mode, consists of two distinct types with different physical mechanisms and climate impacts. The findings advance the understanding of Indian Ocean variability and provide new insights into how IOD events influence regional climate.

Improving the subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) forecast skill for East Asian winter cold surges remains a grand challenge in operational meteorology. Using ECMWF hindcast data, a research team systematically identified the "high-skill windows" of week-3 cold surge forecasts. They found that a "warm-west/cold-east" sea surface temperature dipole over the mid-latitude North Pacific emerges as a consistent precursor of these windows under both El Niño and La Niña conditions, but that the dipole alone is not enough: high skill emerges only when the SST anomalies in all the key regions, including the Barents-Kara Seas, the Indian Ocean and the tropical Pacific, meet their thresholds at the same time. This makes it possible to pre-screen a subseasonal forecast's reliability before it is issued. The work was published in SCIENCE CHINA Earth Sciences.

The review, “Advances in Manufacturing Sustainable Textile Fibers from Chitin and its Derivatives: Spinning Methods, Fiber Functional Properties, Biodegradability, and Environmental Impacts,” by Mohammad Mahbubul Hassan, examines the potential of chitin and its derivatives as sustainable fiber-forming polymers. Published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, the review covers wet spinning, dry-jet wet spinning, gel spinning and nanofiber production, together with the roles of solvents, coagulation baths, drawing, crosslinking and additives in controlling fiber properties. Recent advances have enabled direct spinning of chitin and produced fibers with strength comparable to several natural fibers. At the same time, the review identifies challenges involving processing cost, solvent recovery, wet strength, durability and industrial scalability. It also considers biodegradation, toxicity and environmental footprints, pointing to the need for greener processing routes and more efficient use of biomass resources.