Preprints
There are 8001 Preprints listed.
Workflow for estimating above ground biomass from satellite imagery with non-geolocated ground validation data
Published: 2026-10-09
Subjects: Environmental Monitoring, Natural Resources and Conservation
Satellite-based aboveground biomass mapping typically relies on validation data from field-based inventory plots or other high resolution ground truthing, but acquiring validation data is challenging. In the United States, the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program is a common source of field validation data for biomass mapping, but currently the US Forest Service is not processing Material [...]
Multi-Scale Pixel and Slope-Unit Landslide Susceptibility Mapping with Applicability-Domain Validation: Evidence from the Karnali Highway Corridor, Western Nepal
Published: 2026-08-26
Subjects: Engineering
Landslides along Himalayan Road corridors cause repeated loss of life and prolonged disruption of access, yet susceptibility products for these settings rarely report how far their predictions can be trusted away from the training data. This study maps landslide susceptibility for the Karnali Highway (NH 58) corridor in western Nepal (about 2,155 km2) and pairs the map with an explicit [...]
Nature dependency analysis and the contributions to assessing nature-related risks
Published: 2026-08-13
Subjects: Environmental Studies
Human dependency on natural capital and ecosystem services (ES) present significant risks to wellbeing and economic prosperity, which are poorly understood. While tools, such as the Exploring Natural Capital Opportunities, Risks and Exposure (ENCORE) database, provide valuable global dependency information, translating these insights into country-specific contexts remains challenging. Here, we [...]
A particle representation of tropical shallow water waves
Published: 2026-08-31
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics
The linearized shallow water equations on a general β-plane reduce to a single meridional structure equation for the meridional velocity. We show that this equation is exactly the Schrödinger equation for a “charged” particle minimally coupled to a four-vector potential whose analogue magnetic field, B_W=-(β/c_g ) x ̂, is uniform and westward. No ad hoc term is required: every term is generated [...]
Numerical modeling and hazard analysis of Kuwait dust storm events using WRF Chemistry model
Published: 2026-08-26
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Dust storms have a negative impact on socio-economic events in Kuwait, including traffic accidents, seaport closures, airport shutdowns, and flight delays, and agriculture degradation. From the diurnal analysis of weather parameters, it was noticed that dust storms were more severe from noon to late evening hours and gradually slowed down during the night hours. Sometimes, these strong dust [...]
Approaches and challenges in estimating economic loss from tsunami damage models
Published: 2026-09-17
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences
Tsunami damage assessment as a field has been steadily gaining momentum in the scientific community, and one of the most common ways in which damage has been quantified is by fragility functions. However, how tsunami damage models can be applied to practical disaster risk management is still relatively underexplored. An important aspect of disaster risk management is loss estimations. Loss [...]
Incommensurate Global Cold-Seep Area Constructions and Their Consequences for an Iron-Bound Organic-Carbon Stock
Published: 2026-09-18
Subjects: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Global biogeochemical inventories require a spatial domain that is commensurate with the measured concentration, sediment mass, and ecosystem state. We re-evaluate the area term used by Ye et al. (2026) to estimate 142–218 Tg C of iron-bound organic carbon (Fe-OC) in the upper 30 cm of mature cold-seep sediment. Two primary results emerge. First, Ye et al. state that cold seeps occupy less than [...]
The explosive engine of the 2022 Hunga submarine eruption
Published: 2026-09-10
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geophysics and Seismology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Volcanology
The 2022 submarine eruption of Hunga volcano, Tonga, was among the largest volcanic eruptions in the modern era, yet the processes controlling its explosive sequence remain poorly understood. Here we present the first detailed insight into the internal mechanics of an explosive cycle from teleseismic waveforms. Four eruptive episodes repeat an implosion-explosion cycle, separated by a 3-minute [...]
Evaluating Biochar Crediting Protocols for Durable Carbon Removal
Published: 2026-09-17
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
As biochar expands as a source of carbon credits it has become increasingly clear that there are major differences among biochar protocols. This variation can make it challenging for producers to choose protocols and can make it difficult for buyers to understand the comparative value of different certified biochar credits, and in both these cases investor confidence is jeopardized. Here we [...]
Overshoot pathways: reversible biophysical change, irreversible socioeconomic impacts
Published: 2026-04-26
Subjects: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Exceeding global warming of 1.5°C in the near term is now unavoidable. An overshoot pathway, in which exceedance is followed by decline to or below the threshold through net-negative emissions, is now the only remaining route back to 1.5°C. Permanent exceedance forecloses the recovery from climate impacts that an overshoot pathway may permit, yet even an overshoot pathway leaves lasting legacies. [...]
Data Test of a Hydro-Kinematic State Graph for Landslide Forecasting
Published: 2026-08-26
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Earth Sciences, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Sciences, Geomorphology, Statistics and Probability
A graph model can make landslide-monitoring relationships explicit, but a graph is not automatically more informative than a well-regularized time-series model. This study tests that distinction on the publicly released Lamosano landslide record from northeastern Italy. The processed dataset contains 161 observations of 11-day horizontal InSAR differential displacement and rainfall from 10 April [...]
A transparent constrained stochastic framework for urban expansion forecasting and future service-network screening: Cape Town demonstration using annual building evidence, empirical land constraints, spatial hindcasting, and multi-horizon ensembles
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Other Earth Sciences
Spatial forecasts of urban expansion require separate, auditable answers to two questions: how much built area is assumed to appear, and where it is allocated. This study presents a constrained stochastic workflow and demonstrates it for metropolitan Cape Town, South Africa. Annual Open Buildings Temporal building-presence surfaces for 2016–2023 are harmonised to a 10 m grid and cleaned with a [...]
Testing the Fluorescence Advantage: Does Solar-Induced Fluorescence Signal Agricultural Drought Earlier than NDVI in Marathwada, India?
Published: 2026-09-04
Subjects: Agriculture, Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies, Forest Sciences, Geographic Information Sciences, Geography, Nature and Society Relations, Remote Sensing, Spatial Science
India uses rainfall deficits and vegetation indices such as NDVI to declare drought, and PMFBY crop-insurance payouts depend on these declarations. Solar-Induced Fluorescence (SIF) is linked to photosynthesis, so many expect it to show drought stress earlier than NDVI. I tested this in the eight districts of Marathwada, Maharashtra, over nine Kharif seasons (2015–2023). I compared [...]
Fabric memory during repeated reversal shear in clay-rich materials: An experimental study using SEM, SP-µCT, and AMS
Published: 2026-09-09
Subjects: Tectonics and Structure
Fine-grained shear zones occur in both tectonic faults and gravitational landslides, making their origin difficult to determine from individual microstructural features alone. A potentially useful distinction is provided by deformation history: tectonic faults commonly experience repeated earthquake cycles in which the sense and magnitude of deformation may change, whereas landslide slip zones [...]
Soil Seed Banks of Invasive Plant Species of the Lower Mississippi River Delta
Published: 2026-09-01
Subjects: Life Sciences
Corresponding Author Beth A. Middleton; Email: middletonb@usgs.gov This paper this is a non-peer reviewed preprint submitted to EarthArXiv, and is submitted to PLoS One (in review). Abstract The invasion routes of non-native species into estuaries can be difficult to determine. Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is an invasive species in North America and occurs sporadically in the remote [...]