From cloud-brightening to sun-dimming, radical solutions are being dreamt up to tackle global warming

In the late nineteenth century, ice cream, a popular but poorly understood dessert, brought illness and death to America’s fairs and festivals.

Curate Feeds | Make Collections | Customize Email Briefs

Curate Feeds | Make Collections | Customize Email Briefs

November 2nd, 2026 Ice melt products vary in composition and can have different effects on surfaces. Rock salt (sodium chloride) is widely used and effective but can cause asphalt to dry and crack over time and damage concrete by seeping into pores and refreezing. Salt with calcium chloride works at lower temperatures but is more corrosive, leading to scaling and surface deterioration on concrete and limestone.

For much of the satellite record, the Arctic sea ice melt season kept getting longer. Then, around 2010, that long-running trend unexpectedly flattened. Over several decades, Arctic sea ice generally began melting earlier in the spring and refreezing later in the fall. That extended the time each year when ice was melting and contributed to [...]

For much of the satellite record, the Arctic sea ice melt season kept getting longer. Then, around 2010, that long-running trend unexpectedly flattened. Over several decades, Arctic sea ice generally began melting earlier in the spring and refreezing later in the fall. That extended the time each year when ice was melting and contributed to major reductions in sea ice across the Arctic. A new NASA-led study now shows that while the melt season has lengthened dramatically since satellite monitoring began, its average duration has changed relatively little since about 2010. Arctic Melt Season Is Now About 40 Days Longer The researchers found that the Arctic sea ice melt season is now approximately 40 days longer than it was in 1979. Most of that increase occurred before 2010. Since then, the average length of the melt season has remained fairly steady, even though conditions can still differ substantially from one year to the next. To track the change, researchers analyzed satellite observations spanning 1979 through 2023. They identified when sea ice began to melt each spring and when freezing resumed in the fall. Their analysis showed that the longer melt season was caused primarily by later fall freeze-up, rather than...