iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 15h

Perseverance rover breaks record for off-planet driving… www.reuters.com/science/nasa... For a wonderfully sweet perspective on what this means to the scientists/engineers involved (at very personal levels), listen to www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Well, the Park shut down all fire suppression in the whole Illillouette Creek subbasin of the Merced (an area about ⅓ of the entire Merced catchment above Yosemite Valley) decades ago. So I know they’re very keyed into & studying the fire/landscape options. (Thanks to Jan Vanwogtendonk!)

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Magenta-colored, semitransparent solar panels generate electricity while allowing blue- and red-light wavelengths to pass thru, enhancing broccoli growth underneath by 4.5 times (albeit growth is slower). phys.org/news/2026-10...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

A new study from @CW3E & National Weather Service Juneau introduces an operational tool (the AR Hazard scale) to help identify when an AR brings meteorological conditions (beyond just precip) that increases potential for landslides. ½ cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

From down on Prison Hill in Carson City…1:01 pm today.

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

First-of-its-kind “sound map” of 200 places along the Pacific Crest Trail just released online. Free to listen to and locates the recordings’ respective mile markers along the route. These sounds drop you right into the long wilderness miles. www.sfchronicle.com/outdoors/art...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Getting to the gym is a positive for body & soul. But regarding how well exercise/movement improves cognitive function, “the environment in which the exercise is performed may be just as important as the exercise itself”. Exercising outdoors is better! www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/exerci...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Mexico City AQ poses a puzzle: Air quality policies reduced concentrations of many primary pollutants but decreases in the amount of ozone, a secondary pollutant, have leveled off in recent years. Climate-warming trends are limiting the expected ozone declines. eos.org/science-upda...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I, for one, thought about the 1st chapter of MftF a lot this summer!Now KSR declares that he won’t do readings of it anymore…In it, 20M people die in a climate-change extended extreme heatwave across northern India, sparking the urgent actions of the remaining chapters. apnews.com/article/kim-...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Imposed-heating experiments, along with/two national-scale phenological observation networks, show plants w/thinner leaves & higher nutrient concentrations are more sensitive to warming, in terms of earlier leaf out & later leaf fall —> longer growing szns. 1/2 www.usanpn.org/news/article...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

The UN General Assembly voted 164 votes to 1 to adopt a resolution to encourage members to use the “Equal Earth” projection rather than the commonly used Mercator map. Of course, the one no vote was Trump’s USA. How much more embarrassment must we endure? www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Study of 25M >65 yr-old Medicare recips finds long-term wildfire smoke exposure is significantly associated with increased strokes (17k more/yr), w/stronger association for longer exposure. Notably PM2.5 from wildfires is ~10 times more harmful than PM2.5 from other sources. eos.org/articles/wil...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Most Americans Misjudge Health Risks of Climate Change/Extreme Weather—@Eos eos.org/research-spo... chenlab-yale.github.io/Misperceptio...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Study estimates ice in world's documented >51k rock glaciers to be 48 Gtons (~39 MAF). Western US rock glaciers estimated at ~10 MAF of ice. (RGs are glacial ice buried under &/or mixed w/rocks and debris, which insulates them from much of warming so far.) www.sciencealert.com/a-billion-to...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

For historical context, @CW3E did early insitu monitoring & simulation work on stable isotopes in atmospheric rivers, incl w/Kei, 15-20 yrs ago. —>Yoshimura’s new demonstration results from REAL persistence on his part! 2/2 www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3... www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Kei Yoshimura has new study out today that shows benefits to weather forecasting (out to 5 days) of incorporating satellite measurements of water-vapor isotopes into weather models, augmenting the current obs/methods. 1/2 phys.org/news/2026-09... www.nature.com/articles/s43...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

In low-Earth orbit, more than 34,000 satellites and pieces of debris zip around at 17,500 miles per hour or more, circling the globe every 90 to 120 minutes. Chance of catastrophic collisions are sky rocketing. www.wsj.com/science/spac...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

To fill in global records for analyses of temp & salinity changes in East Greenland coastal waters, new study equipped narwhals w/cond-temp-depth instruments, 2017-2020. Combined datasets showed warming Atlantic Intermed Waters promoted submarine melt & glacier loss. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

In May 2026, solar power became US’s third-largest source of electricity, trailing only natural gas and nuclear power. Look at how its costs have fallen over recent decades. www.forbes.com/sites/billfr...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Warmer surface & atmosphere —> moister atmosphere —> more extreme precip. We scientists’ve all been saying this was coming for years; now it’s emerging at the high end. (Share the figure below to bring it all home…) www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2026...

$Time series of fraction of US land area experiencing record-breaking rainfall each summer past 40 yrs. Up about 100% overall.$

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The new season of Ted Lasso turns to not be the biggest shot of sunshine in your day available this week… That honor goes to Bill McKibben’s new Ted Talk. Check it out! Always authoritative and so uplifting this time (espec if youve been stuck those climate-doom doldrums). youtu.be/9LTGzEzDat0?...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

This yr is the 25th Annual Yosemite Hydroclim Workshop. If you're interested in hydro/climo-related science in Sierra, consider joining in! (Meeting will be in Valley or EP, TBD; beautiful autumn environs either way.) Great chance to see what else is being done up there & for feedback on yr work.

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Is this due to lack of snowmelt inflows? Or does it reflect some desperate upstream-water mgmt to try to bail out Lakes Powell and/or Mead? 2/2 See cnap.ucsd.edu/water-storag... for some examples & explanations of these charts...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Noticed something disturbing about Upper Colorado River Basin reservoirs (abv Lk Powell) this year: The normal mid-summer storage peak is utterly missing! Only comparable year since 2019 was 2021, but even that yr had a summer peak...it was just much muted. This year peak is just missing! 1 /2

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Using a global database of impact measures, new study calculates avg impact severity by country & found it is higher in the Global South despite >2x as many reports from Global North. Weak governance & limited mgmt capacity are main drivers of high severity. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A little background & history… www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3... www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current projected to increase land falling California atmospheric rivers, making them more frequent and stronger when they arrive. www.sciencealert.com/a-major-ocea...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Field survey of 30 Sierra Nevada ponds, summers 2020–2023, shows montane ponds overturn almost every night, unlike warm low-elev ponds of similar volume. Montane ponds do not fit existing pond paradigms mostly based on low-elevation counterparts. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Drying of Aral Sea dumped teratons of C into the atmosphere and region's C balances; refilling can avoid more emissions in the future....Any lessons for Great Salt Lake, Salton Sea, and even smaller imperiled lakes like Owens Lake, etc, here at home? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

New study challenges common misconception that floods will decrease under warming in many rivers due to changes in land-sfc processes, espec less snowmelt. Blames error on past reliance on daily simulations, which mask changes due to subdaily rainfall intensities. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

FIRO is a water mgmt strategy that uses weather/flood forecasts to help reservoirs provide more benefits. New study outlines tools for triaging FIRO challenges/opportunities via precip&flow stats vs storage space & limits on safe releases. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Satellite observations of river surface temperature differences up- vs downstream of 287 large US dams, 2013-2024, show downstream temp differences at 71% of sites, typically warmer (60%) downstream, w/sustained or continued increases w/in 20 km downstream. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

China has (as of April) surpassed the US in total R&D in terms of dollars, people, papers & patents. China is now the dominant global power in R&D (based on Org of Economic Cooperation & Developmt, Web of Science & World Intellectual Property Organization stats). www.aaas.org/sites/defaul...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

As trust in international trade & shipping routes is degraded yr by yr, there have been major shifts in global capital spending toward domestic energy sources & diversification to reduce fuel imports—>more demand for renewables, nukes, EVs & batteries—and coal. foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/08/e...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

New 250m-rez mapping of geomorphic-process domains finds ~75% global land is soil-mantled hillslope & flatlands where diffusive soil creep rules; other 24% is glaciers, lakes, alluvial river corridors, aeolian or bedrock slopes that transport most sediment to oceans. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Now, the vanity part of this posting: Nine of us in NAE's Natural Resource Engineering section contributed the 11th article in this The Bridge issue, discussing key examples of historical innovations in resource characterization, extraction, and processing... 2/2 www.nae.edu/500547/natur...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Just in time for the 4th, a special America250 issue of the National Academy of Engineering's The Bridge quarterly is out today! This issue presents 12 articles describing NAE members' selections of significant developments in US engineering over the past 250 years. ½ www.nae.edu/500293/speci...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

42% of burned area across WesternUS in 2001–2024 occurred in assoc w/heatwaves, & burned forest areas have increased 2.5-fold (amid ~ doubling of # of heatwave days). ~64% of burned-area increase coincided with heatwave, but w/o increases in the nonforest areas. www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

A simple recap of the Upper Colorado River Basin water year to date, vis a vis water storage (Lake Powell, 20 upstream reservoirs, & snow). Its been a DRY one! Other similar year's recently were good news & 2026 is drier than the others. Explanation of graphics at cnap.ucsd.edu/water-storag...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Atmospheric rivers affect (& drive?) marine heat waves two ways. Their thick clouds cut sunlight reaching the sea surface, but the warm, moist air they carry traps heat the ocean would otherwise release. In summer the former dominates; in winter the latter. www.earth.com/news/rivers-...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Study of low-solar-low-wind (LSLW) "energy droughts" in China reveals SW China, with limited renewable energy sources & incomes, is especially prone to LSLW drought. Climate change is expected to increase LSLW droughts & socioeconomic inequalities. agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 17/06/2026

Creeks are benefit (habitat, gwater recharge) and liability (erosion, flooding). UCDavis team maps 12 kinds of SF Bay Area creeks based on 2.4k field surveys, detailing topo, function, flood risks & mgmt options. www.kneedeeptimes.org/bay-area-cre...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Application of a deep learning model to CMIP6 historical & preindustrial-control simulations finds El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) predictability is enhanced by 14% in response to historical anthropogenic forcing (fcasts improved in 26 of 31 models). www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

New @cw3escripps study investigates how an upstream atmospheric river primed the atmosphere over Gulf of Alaska several days in advance to amplify an intense record-breaking heat wave over Washington, Oregon & British Columbia in late June 2021. cw3e.ucsd.edu/cw3e-publica...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

The California 5th Climate Change Assessment (which is due out later this year) is looking for student-artist candidates to design its informational posters! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Its a bit blah again this yr, but here are combos of large-storm contributions vs rest-of-wet-days contributions to water-year's total precipitations @ Tahoe City in Sierra Nevada since 1916. This year's mix shown by circle-crosses shaded yellow. Near norm total, near-norm mix of large vs rest.

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

Newly completed Bay Area AQPI precipitation-radar network (compared to historical sparser NWS radars) extends radar observations well offshore to provide longer fcast lead times, fills subregional gaps in radar coverage & adds data where radar coverage existed. cw3e.ucsd.edu/new-aqpi-c-b...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Trump has approved just 23% of disaster funding requests from states with Democratic governor & two Democratic senators since returning to office. Trump has approved 89% of their requests from states with Republican governor and two Republican senators. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...

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Mike Dettinger @mdettinger.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Btw, it occurred to me that this aspect of how extreme springtime heat waves impact mountain snow pack doesn’t always get the attention deserved: A strong heat wave unleashes snowmelt from all elevations at once, instead of more gradually altitude-wise up a basin. www.mdettinger.com/_files/ugd/3...

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