As I prepare a talk for mid-career academics about my 'leadership journey' I contemplate the potential pitfalls of chairing committees #edusky occamstypewriter.org/athenedonald...

Impressive statement from NCAS and FAAM to push back on most of the narrative put out by UKRI without ever losing composure 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 Leave the swearing to us offline (and potentially in staff meetings 🤫)

Atmospheric researchers decry ‘abrupt’ closure of Nerc flying lab - Research Professional News Decision branded a “terrible mistake”, with concerns raised over lack of consultation with community

Atmospheric scientists decry ‘abrupt’ closure of Nerc flying lab

Decision branded a “terrible mistake”, with concerns raised by groups including @rmets.org over lack of consultation with community

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Yes, please specialise. No, not by focusing on aircraft measurements. No, not by investing in infrastructure. Yes, work together and share equipment. No, not on international physics programs. Look, there's these three buckets...

Who’s up for a PICO? By Claire Ryder, Associate Professor in the Department of Meteorology Have you heard of the PICO session? The European Geophysical Union (EGU) General Assembly has been offering sessions of a less …

PICO sessions at @egu.eu - a snapshot of what dust scientists think. Are they better or worse than orals and posters? Are they more popular with junior scientists?

New @unirdg-met.bsky.social Meteorology Department blog:
Who's up for a PICO?
blogs.reading.ac.uk/weather-and-...

Garnet Fire (California) pyrocumulus at 10:11 this morning, from @alertcalifornia.bsky.social Buck Rock 1 towercam. It's a very "dirty" gray-tinged pyrocumulus really injecting a lot of smoke aerosols higher up into the troposphere than many fires do.

Wildfires are preventable. So why does the Iberian Peninsula keep burning? Governments can’t use climate change as an excuse for failing to take preventive measures, scientists say.

The dramatic images from wildfires tearing through Spain and Portugal year after year have become a mainstay of Europe’s increasingly blistering summers.

But experts say that most of the damage is, in fact, preventable — if only authorities at regional, national and European levels would act.

Scientists call for action to address air pollution from space launches Satellite mega-constellation missions behind threefold increase in emissions of climate-altering soot and CO2

“More pollutants are being released ... from rockets and satellites than ever before.

We’re in uncharted territory, as humans have never added this much pollution to the upper layers of the atmosphere."

- Prof Eloise Marais @ucl.ac.uk

Piece by me

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The CVAO site is unique and so valuable for atmospheric composition research. My thoughts and best wishes go to the staff and everyone at CV.

Tips for producing a short, quick, straightforward paper?

Does such a thing exist?

My papers seem to get more complex and long with every one I write. Need to turn the tables!

#Wildfire smoke from #Portugal and #Spain drifts toward North #Africa, while #SaharanDust surges back across Iberia and #France. This two-way #atmospheric exchange locks both regions in a feedback loop of haze, worsening #AirQuality, altering radiation balance, and amplifying summer #climate stress.

After a ground-based fire passes through an area, especially in a dry climate, dust can be suspended easily from burned areas. Fugitive dust seen here in the @alertcalifornia.bsky.social LaPanza webcam this afternoon.

Thanks to @ecmwf.int Reading for hosting our @unirdg-met.bsky.social Uni Reading Meteorology Department Masters students earlier this week. Students had an inspiring morning learning about ECMWF forecasts, research and data centre. What a great opportunity!

A beautiful simulation illustrating individual dust plumes, sources and larger scale dust uplift and transport

Additional plumes of smoke from wildfires in western Canada are degrading PM2.5 air quality today 11 Jun in the CONUS. The worst conditions are occurring in MT & ND, with lesser but still noticeable impacts across the Great Lakes & Ohio Valley regions. @noaa.gov

The mystery rise of lung cancer in non-smokers The number of lung cancer cases in people who have never smoked is increasing. The disease is different from lung cancer caused by smoking, so what causes it?

www.bbc.com/future/artic... #airpollution #airquality

Canada wildfires smoke turns UK skies orange Smoke from wildfires burning in central Canada was visible in the skies over the UK this weekend.

Canada wildfires smoke turns UK skies orange

#AirPollution knows no borders!

#Health #Environment
www.bbc.co.uk/weather/arti...

How to Stay Safe in the Southern Dust Cloud (Gift Article) A plume of dust is affecting air quality in Florida and may reach other Southern states soon. Here’s what we know about the potential health effects.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/05/w...

And hazy

Continuing long-range smoke transport from devastating Canadian #wildfires across the Atlantic with another huge plume reaching Europe in the next few days. #CopernicusAtmosphere AOD forecast (from 07/06 00 UTC) atmosphere.copernicus.eu/charts/packa... @copernicusecmwf.bsky.social @ecmwf.int

A spiral-shaped smoke arc from Canadian #wildfires stretches over Hudson Bay into the Arctic. This swirling plume carries aerosols that alter clouds, light absorption, and circulation. A visual trace of how distant fires now mold the far North’s atmospheric system.

Data: Jun 3 – NASA Worldview.🛰🌎

Join our Ideas Workshop in Birmingham!

Whether you've used the FAAM Airborne Laboratory before or are completely new to the idea of airborne atmospheric science - this is your opportunity to network, brainstorm, and help direct the future of this facility.

Register here: ncas.ac.uk/join-our-faa...

White House Proposal Could Gut Climate Modeling the World Depends On Potential funding cuts for NOAA and its research partners threaten irreparable harm not only to climate research but to American safety, competitiveness, and national security.

More about threats to NOAA/GFDL.

Timelapse satellite imagery shows a large cloud of dust from the Sahara Desert being blown over the Mediterranean Sea towards Europe. on 1 May
It is not uncommon for bursts of strong southerly winds to blow and carry dust from Africa's vast Sahara Desert across the Mediterranean Sea.

🛰 @zoom.earth

Farewell #EGU and Vienna - fantastic to get a good view on departure!

If you haven't come across PICO before - we do 2 minute quick talks from all participants ("2 minute madness") lasting about 30 mins, followed by more in-depth free-flow discussions at interactive poster screens for the rest of the session.

Join us at #EGU25 tomorrow for the Aeolian #Dust session! PICO Spot 1 8:30-12:30 - plenty of exciting talks!
meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/sessio...

Attendees please have pity on your fellow attendees and officially withdraw if nobody is presenting #EGU25

#EGU25 there is nothing more annoying than withdrawn oral presentations which are NOT MARKED on the schedule as such. Very frustrating when making choices of what to attend. @egu.eu

Always so much more visible from above too - this was out of Heathrow on Monday.