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A Review of Definitions of Precipitation Whiplash Events, What Causes Them and Their Impacts Over the US

Precipitation whiplash, the rapid shift from drought to flooding, or vice versa, exacerbates the impact of both extremes compared to if they were to occur separately. The recognition of these types of events is relatively recent, and event precursors, driving meteorology and impacts are poorly understood. In response to this, this review summarizes the current […]

Constructing the commuting backbone network dataset for the United States

Commuting backbones represent the most essential connections within a commuting network—those significant flows that link major residential and employment areas and structurally support regional mobility systems. Identifying these backbones is critical for understanding large-scale travel demand, informing infrastructure investment, and supporting transportation planning at regional and national levels. Despite their importance, no publicly available datasets […]

A Deep-Learning Workflow for CORONA-Based Historical Land Use Classifications

Historical satellite imagery lacks efficient methods for automated land use mapping, particularly when working with CORONA satellite data from the Cold War era. These high-resolution images from the 1960s offer valuable insights into historic land use conditions, but require intensive preprocessing and lack standardized methods for analysis. This article presents an integrated and systematic workflow […]

The biogeophysical impacts of land cover change on climate extremes in the Arctic and Boreal regions

A new paper in Environmental Research Letters reveals how recent land-cover shifts across the Arctic–Boreal region are already cooling daily high-temperature extremes yet intensifying multi-day drought risk—insights gained by driving CESM2 with 30 m satellite maps. The study, led by Shuai Li with Di Yang and colleagues, quantifies albedo-driven changes of up to 0.6 °C […]

Spatial Patterns of Dengue Incidence in Nepal During Record Outbreaks

Dengue, which was first reported as a travel case in Nepal in 2004, was initially confined to the lower plains but has spread to higher elevations. Large outbreaks in 2022 and 2023, reached every district. We calculated the district-wise incidence for 2022 and 2023 by digitizing case data from Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population […]

The resilience of agricultural trade networks in West Africa

Trade networks for agricultural products play an important role in agricultural development and regional integration in West Africa. However, mapping these networks is challenging due to the lack of a comprehensive analytical framework that supports evidence-based policymaking. This policy note represents a first attempt to integrate the spatial, social and temporal aspects that influence trade […]

Spatiotemporal variation in frequency of persistent hot spell events over Africa

This study examines the long-term variation of the annual occurrence frequency for the Persistent Hot spell Events (PHEs) over the African continent and the underlying mechanisms using the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55) daily dataset for the period 1961–2021. We applied criterion for periods when the daily standardized anomaly index (SAI) value of mean daily temperature […]

Transforming abandoned mines into solar farms

The demand for renewable energy is becoming increasingly apparent, but a significant challenge lies in the limited availability of land. To limit environmental impacts associated with new development in previously undisturbed lands, this study investigates the potential to convert abandoned mines in Florida and Pennsylvania into solar farms, aligning with federal and state-level clean energy […]

How geography influences access to different types of healthcare

This new editorial in Sleep Health  showcases how an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about how geography influences access to different types of healthcare. Co-authored by Soomi Lee, Christopher N. Kaufmann, Catherine A. Lippi, Sadie J. Ryan and Yi Guo, the editorial discusses how this approach impacts diagnostic outcomes for sleep problems,  which may be indicators […]

Mobility disruption and recovery in SW Florida’s elderly-dense communities during Hurricane Ian

Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that struck Florida’s southwest coast, resulted in 156 fatalities, with two-thirds of the victims being seniors. This highlights the need to address disaster risks for this vulnerable population. This study utilizes anonymized and privacy enhanced mobile phone GPS data to examine mobility disruptions and recovery patterns during Hurricane Ian […]