Using a new technique based on magnetic-wave analysis, scientists have, for the first time, discovered lithium in the atmosphere of Mercury. Published in Nature Communications, the study constitutes the first detection of lithium around the smallest planet in our solar system. The exosphere of Mercury, Unlike thickened atmospheres, the thin shell of particles that constitutes Mercury’s exosphere can render direct searching methods inadequate. Instead of searching for atoms, scientists analysed pick-up ion cyclotron waves—an electromagnetic fingerprint left behind when solar wind interacts with freshly ionised lithium. These faint signals finally confirmed lithium’s long-speculated presence.

MESSENGER Data Reveals Lithium Traces from Meteoroid Impacts in Mercury’s Exosphere

As per the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the research team led by Daniel Schmid reviewed four years of magnetic field data collected by NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft. Twelve short-lived events—each lasting mere minutes—revealed these lithium-specific wave signatures.

The waves are generated when solar ultraviolet radiation ionises lithium atoms, and temporary lithium wind blows the ionised atoms into space, which increases the speed of the formation of electromagnetic instabilities. These perturbations induce oscillations at a single cyclotron frequency, determined by the mass and charge of lithium (such that it is identified as lithium indirectly by magnetic measurements).

Lithium has been difficult to find, as the rare alkali metal is thinly scattered. The traditional particle detectors on Mariner 10 and MESSENGER couldn’t directly capture it. The most likely candidate is meteoroid impacts, which would cause heated vapour clouds in the collision and throw lithium into the exosphere.

Mercury’s surface is continuously replenished by extraterrestrial bombardment, according to a study linking detected events to meteoroid strikes by objects 13-21 centimetres in radius. These high-speed collisions can vaporise up to 150 times their own mass, endowing the atmosphere with volatiles such as lithium.

Schmid’s study reveals that such processes could also account for the retention or acquisition of volatile elements in other airless bodies, which would transform our understanding of the geochemical story of Mercury and open up new steps in exosphere exploration.

A new climate study was just being released that had the potential to brush out the global warming we’re experiencing like so many eraser crumbs on notebook paper, revealing what might be our future if the ambient warming wasn’t part of the equation: much more extreme regional happenings. The model also forecasts Arctic Ocean warming as high as 5°C and intense rainfall strengthening over areas such as the Himalayas, Andes, and eastern Asia. This jump in detail, made possible by high-powered simulations, provides sharper tools to adapt to local climates, plan energy needs, and prepare for disasters — especially in places like small island nations and mountain communities that are already feeling the effects of climate change and rely on cell towers more than landlines.

Supercomputing Climate Model Unveils Regional Extremes Under 1°C Global Warming

As per a report published in Earth System Dynamics, the breakthrough was made by researchers from the IBS Centre for Climate Physics in South Korea and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. They employed the AWI-CM3 Earth system model, running it on South Korea’s top supercomputers to simulate climate conditions at 9 km atmospheric and 4–25 km ocean resolution—far finer than the ~100 km resolution models commonly used by the IPCC.

The weather forecast now takes into account region-specific patterns never studied before: local conditions on islands, types of oceanfront rain, and the way turbulence forms in ocean eddies. Warming is expected to intensify at a rate 45%–60% higher than the global mean in high mountain ranges, including the Hindu Kush and Andes. In Siberian and Canadian Arctic regions, temperatures may rise by about 2°C under a 1°C global average increase.

The researchers also predict increased climate fluctuations. El Niño, La Niña, and the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) will increase, and the state of both phenomena will be on a faster track with larger frequency and impact, which will cause a great number of days with heavy rain (rainfall > 50 mm/day). That motion could trigger floods and landslides in heavily populated and environmentally delicate areas.

And for that insight to be actionable, the lab has created an interactive tool that is basically maps of climate projections in the form of data overlaid on Google Earth. These datasets are vital for policymakers who build solar & wind infrastructure & develop disaster response & water management plans in varied geographies.