Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Planetary Sciences
Impacts of Potential Solar Radiation Modification: Systematic Review Reveals Challenges and Opportunities
Published: 2026-06-06
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Plant Sciences
Solar radiation modification (SRM) is a proposed temporary intervention to limit global warming while mitigation efforts continue. Understanding its potential consequences for human and natural systems is essential for informed deliberations. We conducted a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature on SRM impacts published through May 2024, identifying 289 studies, including 261 primary [...]
Climate overshoot and the insurability frontier: peak stress, domestic capacity, and market retreat risk
Published: 2026-06-05
Subjects: Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Planetary Sciences
Climate overshoot can create mid-century peaks in climate stress before end-century temperatures stabilize, but its implications for insurance availability remain poorly understood. We assess subnational insurance market exit risk under overshoot across 1,590 first-order administrative regions in 88 countries, covering 4.54 billion people. Combining ADM1-level multi-hazard climate stress, an [...]
Deciphering the morphology of turbiditic lobe bodies according to hierarchy and system size
Published: 2026-06-04
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences, Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sedimentology, Statistics and Probability
Turbiditic lobe bodies (LBs) are the ultimate deposits of source-to-sink systems. Their geometry and architecture vary with depositional environment (marine vs. lacustrine), hierarchy (lobe elements, lobes, lobe complexes), system size (large vs. small) and topographic confinement. Constraining these variations is useful for characterizing the dispersion of sediments, carbon, nutrients, and [...]
Lunar Formation by Triple Phase Transition in the Differentiating Proto-Earth
Published: 2026-05-28
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Physics, Planetary Sciences, The Sun and the Solar System
The origin of the Moon remains one of the open questions of planetary science. The canonical giant impact model (Theia collision) predicts neither the near-isotopic identity of Earth and Moon, nor the crustal dichotomy, nor the ≈ 300 Myr delay of the terrestrial dynamo. The synestia model faces the same limitations. This work is conceptually distinct from both: it requires no external impactor, [...]
Trapped Lee-Wave Resonance Determines Antarctic Megadune Wavelength
Published: 2026-05-23
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Categorical Data Analysis, Design of Experiments and Sample Surveys, Earth Sciences, Fluid Dynamics, Geology, Geomorphology, Geophysics and Seismology, Glaciology, Mineral Physics, Other Earth Sciences, Paleontology, Physics, Planetary Geology, Planetary Geomorphology, Planetary Geophysics and Seismology, Planetary Glaciology, Planetary Hydrology, Planetary Mineral Physics, Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sedimentology, Sedimentology, Statistical Methodology, Statistical Models, Statistics and Probability, Stratigraphy
Snow megadunes cover 5×105 km2 of the East Antarctic plateau, biasing surface mass balance estimates and overprinting ice-core signals—yet their 2–5 km wavelength has lacked a quantitative selection mechanism for two decades. We first falsify the standard formula λ∗ = 2πU0/N through a calibration-free spatial test: eight REMA 2 m tiles across two independent locations at 81.5–82.0°S show no [...]
A Blueprint for Integrated Climate Intelligence
Published: 2026-05-13
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Environmental Monitoring, Planetary Sciences, Sustainability
Climate information is advancing faster than the decision systems designed to use it. Emergency response operates on timescales of hours, whereas societal adaptation unfolds over decades. Yet climate science, impact assessment and policy remain poorly integrated, limiting coherent action across timescales. We argue that artificial intelligence should be developed not only as a domain-specific [...]
A research roadmap for assessing the feasibility of warming Mars
Published: 2026-05-05
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 [...]
Reduced geomagnetic shielding increased UV-B radiation at Earth’s surface during the Laschamps Event
Published: 2026-05-01
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 [...]
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 [...]
A Global Catalogue of Lunar Topographic Prominence ≥ 1 km
Published: 2026-04-01
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Geomorphology, Planetary Sciences
We present the Lunar Ribus Database, a global catalogue of lunar summits with topographic prominence ≥1 km derived from the highest-resolution global and regional digital elevation models currently available. Each summit in the catalogue is reported with summit and key col elevations relative to the global minimum, prominence, key col elevation, and geographic coordinates of both summit and key [...]
Seventeen city types define distinct pathways for climate mitigation and adaptation worldwide
Published: 2026-04-01
Subjects: Computer Sciences, Environmental Studies, Geography, Planetary Sciences
Understanding that cities are main arenas of climate action, it remains unclear which cities should focus on what kind of action taking a global comparative lens. Recent contributions identified four different types of cities across seven world regions, while others specified a huge case study literature database on cities and climate change biased towards established, stagnant, and megacities, [...]
Water-efficient Indian rice cultivation boosts exports despite high carbon footprints
Published: 2026-03-03
Subjects: Agriculture, Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences, Plant Sciences
Most agricultural sustainability efforts adopt a national-scale view, masking regional trade-offs between crop yields and environmental footprints. To measure trade-offs, satellite remote sensing based life cycle assessment of rice agroecosystems across India from 2004 to 2021 was conducted revealing pivotal shifts of four cultivation typologies, termed as unsustainable, conventional, productive, [...]
Conceptual challenges in astrobiological analog environments and paths toward resolution
Published: 2026-02-13
Subjects: Biology, Other Life Sciences, Other Planetary Sciences, Planetary Sciences
Analog environments are terrestrial environments that resemble extraterrestrial sites; this concept originated in space sciences for defining methods to study planetary geology, training for missions and testing research instruments. As biological research became integrated into these investigations - through studies of limits for life and possible biosignatures - and astrobiology grew as a [...]
Carboxyl-stabilized Mn redox cycling promotes a metastable kutnahorite-to-dolomite pathway
Published: 2026-01-20
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Fine-crystalline, fabric-preserving dolostones in deep-time successions are difficult to reconcile with high-temperature burial models, suggesting the existence of a low-temperature formation pathway capable of overcoming both the kinetic hydration barrier of Mg2+ and the thermodynamic miscibility gap separating calcite from ordered dolomite. Here, we demonstrate a kinetically favourable route to [...]
Earth as a Reference System for Ultraviolet Transmission Spectroscopy: A Computational Model of Oxygen Detectability
Published: 2026-01-10
Subjects: Astrophysics and Astronomy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Planetary Sciences
Detecting atmospheres around Earth-sized exoplanets is a critical step toward identifying potentially habitable worlds, yet such atmospheres produce extremely weak observational signals. This study investigates the detectability of an Earth-like atmosphere using ultraviolet transmission spectroscopy and examines which wavelength ranges provide the strongest atmospheric signatures during planetary [...]