Cities need accurate emission estimates for climate action. We compared five emission inventories over the Greater Tokyo Area using measurements from four sites and an atmospheric transport model. We found that measurements at the four sites show distinct features of the inventories in emission amount and spatial distribution. Site choice is important for evaluating urban emissions. These findings can help improve emission inventories, future urban observations and simulations.

This paper illustrates that in regions that suffer from lack of meteorological information, the cellular phone network can provide rainfall measurement and mapping. This is illustrated in Niamey, the capital city of Niger using data provided by a telecom operator during 2017, a season marked by many intense rainfall. We analyse the microwave attenuation and transform it into rainfall maps, every 15 minutes, showing very high rainfall rates related to intense tropical convection.

The Arctic is warming rapidly, threatening to release vast carbon stores from frozen soils. Climate models consistently misrepresent Arctic snow, causing soils to appear artificially cold. We used a random forest model to better predict winter snow density and fed these improved estimates into a widely used climate model which raised projected soil temperatures by up to 7 °C, suggesting current forecasts of soil temperature and carbon release are likely underestimated.