Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Earth Sciences
EGMSpy: an open-source Python toolkit for scalable data handling, classification, clustering, and visualisation of Copernicus EGMS InSAR data
Published: 2026-05-08
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Geomorphology
The Copernicus European Ground Motion Service (EGMS) provides millimetre-accuracy line-of-sight displacement measurements for over five billion coherent scatterers across Europe, derived from Sentinel-1 SAR interferometry over the period 2015--2023. Despite the unprecedented spatial coverage and measurement density of this dataset, no open-source integrated toolchain exists for processing, [...]
Forest or tundra? How different vegetation reconstructions of Last Glacial landscapes in Europe may shape our perception of early human dispersal processes
Published: 2026-05-08
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geography, Human Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Paleobiology, Paleontology, Physical and Environmental Geography
Regional variability and long-term changes of past ecosystems likely had a strong impact on hunter-gatherer population dynamics, including the expansion of anatomically modern humans and the disappearance of Neanderthals. However, our understanding of these ecosystems remains limited, even when looking at large-scale patterns, such as the extent and distribution of forested areas. Vegetation [...]
Remotely sensed evapotranspiration for corporate water stewardship: Opportunities and limitations in agricultural landscapes
Published: 2026-05-07
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Hydrology, Natural Resources and Conservation, Sustainability, Water Resource Management
Corporate water stewardship (CWS), in which companies engage in or incentivize actions to advance sustainable water resource management, can positively affect water resources, reduce water-related business risks, and support Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and sustainability reporting efforts. Agricultural landscapes affect diverse industries including finance, technology, fuel [...]
A comprehensive study of the CO2-O2 isotope exchange technique to standardize triple oxygen measurements in CO2
Published: 2026-05-05
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geochemistry
A research roadmap for assessing the feasibility of warming Mars
Published: 2026-05-04
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences
This roadmap outlines research pathways to determine whether Mars could be warmed withnon-biological methods. It does not presuppose that warming Mars is desirable; its purposeis to identify what would need to be true for Mars to be warmed, what it would cost, and whatcould go wrong. Three complementary research tracks appear promising. Solid-stategreenhouse membranes offer local warming, aiding [...]
From 2D labels to 3D structure: Scalable label transfer and benchmarking of 3D vegetation models in rangeland ecosystems
Published: 2026-05-02
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Biogeochemistry, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Remote Sensing
Three-dimensional (3D) characterisation of vegetation structure at the level of individual growth forms is critical for understanding ecosystem function and resilience, yet remains challenging in rangelands because vegetation is sparse, low-stature, and structurally heterogeneous. Recent 3D deep-learning models perform strongly in forests, but their transfer beyond closed-canopy benchmarks is [...]
Extreme recharge triggers seismicity in a confined karst aquifer in southern Spain
Published: 2026-05-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Hydrology, Tectonics and Structure
Hydrological forcing during extreme recharge events can perturb crustal stress and trigger seismicity in a critically stressed crust, yet the coupling between aquifer dynamics and the spatio-temporal distribution of earthquake swarms remains poorly constrained. Here we document such a response during an exceptional rainfall episode in early 2026 that affected a confined karst aquifer in southern [...]
How Do Discrete Global Grid Systems Actually Perform? A Systematic Benchmark Across Geometry, Computation and Relational Joins
Published: 2026-05-01
Subjects: Computer and Systems Architecture, Databases and Information Systems, Earth Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Software Engineering, Spatial Science
As geospatial datasets exceed the billion-row threshold, Discrete Global Grid Systems (DGGS) promise to replace expensive vector spatial joins with fast relational hash-joins on discrete cell identifiers. However, the real-world performance of different grid implementations and the upfront cost of converting vector geometries into grid indexes remains largely unquantified. This paper introduces [...]
Increasing lifetime exposure to extreme fire weather under climate change in Europe
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Earth Sciences
Climate change increases fire weather globally. Hot, dry and windy conditions raise the likelihood of fires igniting and spreading and make suppression more challenging. With further warming, fire weather is projected to intensify across Europe, yet implications for today’s young generations remain unclear. Here, we analyse lifetime exposure to extreme fire weather across Europe using an ensemble [...]
Reduced geomagnetic shielding increased UV-B radiation at Earth’s surface during the Laschamps Event
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Atmospheric Sciences, Biochemistry, Biogeochemistry, Biology, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Chemistry, Environmental Sciences, Geology, Geophysics and Seismology, Life Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Life Sciences, Paleobiology, Physical and Environmental Geography, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geochemistry, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Statistics and Probability
Exposure to excess UV-B radiation can harm organisms through DNA damage and oxidative stress, and has likely been a key ecological and evolutionary driver throughout Earth’s history. Here, we show UV-B at Earth’s surface was significantly increased during the Laschamps Event, the last major geomagnetic excursion ca. 41ka BP. During the Laschamps, we find significant and prolonged (lasting [...]
Direct quantification of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence using compact solar-blind optical radiometers
Published: 2026-04-30
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Optics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics
Remote sensing of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) provides a non-invasive, quantitative measure of plant photosynthetic activity, linking leaf-level physiology to canopy and ecosystem behavior and the global carbon cycle. Current SIF measurements rely on hyperspectral retrievals of the weak fluorescence signal from small changes in Fraunhofer lines or atmospheric absorption features [...]
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 [...]