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Climate change

Getting into the details of carbon accounting

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is essential for climate change mitigation, but no single standardized methodology exists for evaluating project-level net carbon removal from the atmosphere. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists and collaborators from Lawrence Berkeley and National Renewable Energy national laboratories and UC Berkeley, have looked into the…

It’s all in the accounting

Natural ecosystems can be used to offset manmade CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions that we add to the atmosphere, but the accounting needs to be right for carbon offset policies to be effective. For years, it’s been suspected that forest inventory and, more recently, biometeorological methods bias the carbon sequestration equation by potentially miscounting the…

A pattern of temperature change emerges from natural climate fluctuations

When comparing model simulations of Earth’s recent warming to real-world observations, differences can arise from several factors, including model errors in the simulated response to increased greenhouse gases and natural fluctuations within the climate system. Natural climate variability, also called internal variability, can change regional and global atmospheric…

Lab study on climate sensitivity earns top notch in list of influential research

The American Geophysical Union is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) by showcasing some of the highest-achieving papers that have been published over the past 50 years. A paper by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists is one of the winners. The paper, “Causes of Higher Climate Sensitivity in CMIP6 Models,”…

Understanding soil carbon's sensitivity to increasing global temperatures

Particulate soil carbon may be more vulnerable to microbial decomposition under warmer temperatures associated with climate change. Soil organic matter contains more carbon than plants and the atmosphere combined. Soil is increasingly considered for its potential role in climate mitigation due to its ability to sequester more carbon, but it also is critical to understand…

Hydrogen storage demonstrated for semi trucks

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Verne, a San Francisco-based startup, have demonstrated a cryo-compressed hydrogen storage system of suitable scale for heavy-duty vehicles. This is the first time cryo-compressed hydrogen storage has been demonstrated at a scale large enough to be useful for semi trucks, a milestone in high-density hydrogen storage…

New analysis outlines national opportunities to remove CO2 at the gigaton scale

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers, along with scientists from more than a dozen institutions, have completed a first-of-its-kind high-resolution assessment of carbon dioxide (CO2) removal (CDR) in the United States. The report, “Roads to Removal: Options for Carbon Dioxide Removal in the United States,” charts a path for the United States to achieve…

Lawrence Livermore shares recommendations for Microsoft to reach carbon-negative goal

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists have provided input on Microsoft’s pathway to become carbon-negative by 2030. LLNL researchers built on their pivotal report "Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California," which has become a trusted adviser in the discussion of how to remove carbon dioxide from the air, to make…

Greenland landscape history preserved under ice sheet

Greenland wasn’t always covered in ice. In fact, within the last 1.1 million years, Greenland had thriving vegetation and ecosystems. That is the conclusion of an international group of researchers, including a scientist from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), that analyzed sediment at the base of the Camp Century ice core (1.4 kilometers deep) collected in…

Media advisory: Energy experts to discuss carbon capture, storage and regulations for California

WHO George Peridas, director of carbon management partnerships, and staff scientist Briana Schmidt from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Peridas is responsible for incubating partnerships that result in the advancement and deployment of carbon management solutions and technologies, including the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or so-called negative…

Lab report outlines updates to state’s regulations for carbon capture, storage in effort to achieve neutrality

To reach economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2045 or earlier, California will likely have to capture, transport and geologically store tens of millions of tons per year of carbon dioxide (CO2) from large sources and from the atmosphere. California has an extensive regulatory framework that is rigorous, robust and will safeguard the environment, public health and safety…

Moving to carbon neutrality: one year later

One year after publishing the groundbreaking "Getting to Neutral: Options for Negative Carbon Emissions in California," Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has become a trusted adviser in the discussion of how to remove carbon dioxide from the air. In the report, LLNL scientists identified a robust suite of technologies to help California clear the last hurdle…

Climate models overestimate natural variability

By looking at satellite measurements of temperature changes in the lower layer of Earth’s atmosphere, scientists found that climate models may have overestimated the decade-to-decade natural variability of temperature. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) statistician Giuliana Pallotta and climate scientist Benjamin Santer created a statistical framework to…

Examining climate effects of regional nuclear exchange

A team of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers has found that the global climatic consequences of a regional nuclear weapons exchange could range from a minimal impact to more significant cooling lasting years. The five LLNL scientists examined the potential for global climate changes from large urban fires ignited in a hypothetical regional nuclear…

Human influence detected in changing seasons

For the first time, scientists from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and five other organizations have shown that human influences significantly impact the size of the seasonal cycle of temperature in the lowest layer of the atmosphere. To demonstrate this, they applied a so-called "fingerprint" technique. Fingerprinting seeks to separate human and natural…

Study on impact of climate change on snowpack

An international team of scientists, including one from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), has found that up to 20 percent loss in the annual maximum amount of water contained in the Western United States’ mountain snowpack in the last three decades is due to human influence. Peak runoff in streams and rivers of the Western U.S. is strongly influenced by…

Cloudy feedback on global warming

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers have identified a mechanism that causes low clouds -- and their influence on Earth’s energy balance -- to respond differently to global warming, depending on their spatial pattern and location. The results imply that studies relying solely on recent observed trends underestimated how much Earth will warm due to increased…

Scientists find evidence for climate change in satellite cloud record

Scientists have found that changes in cloud patterns during the last three decades match those predicted by climate model simulations. These cloud changes are likely to have had a warming effect on the planet. Records of cloudiness from satellites originally designed to monitor weather are plagued by erroneous variability related to changes in satellite orbit, instrument…

Climate models underestimate global warming by exaggerating cloud 'brightening'

Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Yale University have found that climate models are aggressively making clouds "brighter" as the planet warms. This may be causing models to underestimate how much global warming will occur due to increasing carbon dioxide. The research appears in the April 8 edition of Science.As the atmosphere warms, clouds become…

Researcher sheds light on ocean observations

Oceanographer Paul Durack of the Laboratory’s Program for Climate Modeling and Intercomparison (PCMDI) recently opined about the importance of ocean salinity observations and needed urgent attention for the ocean observing system in the journal, Nature Climate Change. The global water cycle — where, when and how it rains, and the corresponding changes to water availability…