Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
Retrieval of Cloud Optical Thickness Based on FY-4B Geostationary Satellite Multichannel Data Combined with Machine Learning
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Accurate real-time retrieval of cloud optical thickness (COT) is of great significance for meteorological operations and climate research. To address the limitations of traditional physical methods, which rely on prior parameters, exhibit slow response times, and suffer from poor adaptability, this study proposes a COT retrieval method based on multichannel data from the FY-4B geostationary [...]
Soil Remineralization in Agroecological Systems: A Critical Review
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Soil degradation threatens global food security, human nutrition, biodiversity, water resources, and climate stability by depleting soil organic matter, exhausting nutrient reserves, and disrupting carbon and nitrogen cycles. Conventional input‑intensive agriculture has delivered yield gains but has also contributed to widespread micronutrient deficiencies, nutrient loading of waterways, soil [...]
Efficient Full-Waveform Inversion via QR-Based Data Selection
Published: 2026-04-28
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Full-waveform inversion (FWI) is computationally intensive due to the large number of data points, forward simulations, and model parameters. However, realistic acquisition geometries often produce highly redundant linearized systems. In this work, we reformulate post-acquisition data selection as a matrix row-subset selection problem acting directly on the Jacobian of the linearized inverse [...]
Understanding fiber-optic sensitivity to a wavefield: A framework to separate site amplification from orientation effects
Published: 2026-04-27
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
When analyzing signals from Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), the recorded amplitude across the array can be difficult to interpret, as it is influenced by many parameters. In this work, we explore the theoretical foundations of fiber sensing amplitude transfer functions. We begin with linear fiber segments and progressively extend to more complex geometries to create polarization [...]
Microphysical Evolution of Precipitation During Convective Storm Life-Cycles and Implications for Radar QPE: Combined Radar–Disdrometer Observations from Kolkata, Eastern India
Published: 2026-04-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Through dedicated observations with a Joss–Waldvogel disdrometer at Dumdum (22.65°N, 88.43°E) and the S-band Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) (22.57°N, 88.35°E) over Kolkata, this study provides in-depth analysis of drop size distribution (DSD) evolution over each stage from initiation to decay of contrasting convective storms over Kolkata, eastern India due to its complicated terrain in monsoon [...]
Reevaluating the Abbabis Complex: Intrusive relationships and melt connectivity in a syn-orogenic migmatite–granite system, Damara Orogen, Namibia
Published: 2026-04-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geology, Stratigraphy, Tectonics and Structure
The Abbabis Complex in the Damara Orogen has long been interpreted as a pre-Damaran (c. 1–2 Ga) basement terrane unconformably overlain by Neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Damara Supergroup. New field mapping and geochemical data from the Ida Dome and Husabberg Anticlinorium encourages re-evaluation of this interpretation. The Abbabis Complex comprises migmatites, larger leucogranite [...]
Continuous Water Surface Elevation Estimates Using Deep Learning with Legacy Altimetry and Surface Water and Ocean Topography Data
Published: 2026-04-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Water Resource Management
We present the development of a high-temporal-resolution global dataset of daily river water surface elevation (WSE), spanning January 2008 through May 2025. By utilizing a deep learning framework to integrate legacy satellite altimetry and the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission data, we produced a continuous record covering 9,184 river reaches, 5,926 rivers, and 1,342 basins. The [...]
Airborne imaging spectrometer measurements of methane releases under turbulent conditions
Published: 2026-04-24
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Methane plume detection and quantification from airborne and spaceborne platforms offers a promising approach for monitoring localized greenhouse gas emissions. Its performance must be demonstrated under realistic but controlled conditions. An airborne demonstrator of a compact shortwave infrared imaging spectrometer developed for the AIRMO Earth observation mission was therefore evaluated during [...]
Erosion-driven changes in soil cation exchange capacity quantified using barium isotopes
Published: 2026-04-22
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Soil Science
Human activities have perturbed the balance between rates of soil erosion and formation, driving declines in soil quality. However, quantifying these soil imbalances remains challenging, especially at large scales. Here we present a novel isotope mass balance approach that can be used to quantify river catchment wide rates of change in cation exchange capacity (CEC), a key soil quality metric, in [...]
Late Holocene tsunami hydrodynamics, sediment provenance and chronology from Dury Voe, Shetland Islands (UK)
Published: 2026-04-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Sedimentology
The Shetland Islands are one of the key sites in the Atlantic Ocean to study tsunami deposits, with three major events identified during the Holocene so far. Here, we aim to (i) reconstruct hydrodynamics of the late Holocene Dury Voe tsunami, (ii) constrain the sediment source area, and (iii) refine its age estimate. Onshore sandy deposits bracketed by thick dystrophic peat as well as marine [...]
Spaceborne imaging spectrometry of methane plumes: Quantifying the benefit of aerosol lidar
Published: 2026-04-22
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Physics
Column averaged mixing ratios of trace gases, such as methane (XCH4), from spaceborne pushbroom spectrometers can be used to detect corresponding plumes and retrieve enhancements (ΔXCH4), i.e., the difference between plume and background XCH4. Over the global dust belt, however, significant scattering by dust aerosols may cause biased XCH4 that may propagate into biased ΔXCH4. To correct this, a [...]
Before the Threshold: Deceptive Stability, Buffer Slack, and Earth System Transitions
Published: 2026-04-20
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Other Environmental Sciences
Earth history includes episodes in which biological or geophysical processes generate persistent byproduct loads whose early effects are partially masked by environmental sinks and buffering pathways. This paper synthesizes established literatures on Earth system revolutions, redox transitions, mass extinctions, and Anthropocene change into an explicit phase grammar termed Buffered Byproduct [...]
PDCD-DAT – A global database of pyroclastic density current deposit field data
Published: 2026-04-18
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Pyroclastic density currents represent one of the deadliest hazards posed by active volcanoes. Analysis of their deposits provides valuable insights into their internal dynamics and informs numerical simulations of pyroclastic density currents which underpin many volcanic hazard assessments. We present PDCD-DAT, a global database of pyroclastic density current deposit characteristics compiled [...]
Dueling dynamics of low-angle normal fault rupture with splay faulting and off-fault damage
Published: 2026-04-16
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology
Despite a lack of modern large earthquakes on shallowly dipping normal faults, Holocene Mw>7 low-angle normal fault (LANF; dip<30°) ruptures are preserved paleoseismically and inferred from historical earthquake and tsunami accounts. Even in well-recorded megathrust earthquakes, the effects of non-linear off-fault plasticity and dynamically reactivated splay faults on shallow deformation [...]
Terrestrial formation of calcium sulfate and carbonate assemblages in Atacama CO chondrites: Implications for Martian evaporitic environments
Published: 2026-04-15
Subjects: Cosmochemistry, Earth Sciences, Geochemistry, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Geology, Planetary Mineral Physics, Planetary Sciences
Evaporites are frequently reported in carbonaceous chondrites from hot and cold deserts, yet their origin remains debated between formation on the parent body or by post-fall terrestrial alteration. Here, we present a systematic characterization of Ca sulfate and Ca carbonate assemblages in four CO carbonaceous chondrites from different dense collection areas of the Atacama Desert (Los Vientos [...]