When the nation’s leading experts in weather, water, and climate gather in Baltimore later this month for the annual conference of the American Meteorological Society (AMS), they will get a close-up view of the region’s fragile environment.

Today, Nature Communications published a study entitled "First close insight into global daily gapless 1-km PM2.5 pollution, variability, and health impact" by Jing Wei (Assistant Research Scientist) and Zhanqing Li (Distinguished University Professor) of the University of Maryland, USA and collaborators from the US and foreign institutes.

UMD researchers analyzed changes in the mortality burden attributed to wildfire pollution over the last two decades.

Published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research shows that the 12-hour undersea eruption led to unprecedented losses of up to 7% of the ozone layer over large areas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Methane is the second-most abundant greenhouse gas in Earth’s atmosphere, and its emissions have been rapidly—and mysteriously—rising since 2007. Though pervasive, the origin of the colorless compound is tricky to trace, complicating efforts to curb gases that trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the planet.