Rivers and streams cover more of the Earth than we thought

"We think of this database as a first step toward much more work," says Allen. The researchers discovered a new scientific study released Thursday, but the era of exploration is over.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Texas A & M University used satellite imagery, field measurements, and a statistical model. At UNC-Chapel Hill, a NASA-funded researcher under the direction of Tamlin Pavelsky, PhD, a professor of hydrology on a global scale, was not to the glory of discovery.

George Allen and Tamplin Pawelski have argued in scientific papers that new discoveries account for 773,000 square kilometers, nearly half more than previous estimates (44%). It is important to know where the carbon goes, they suggest on paper, because if we can not follow it, then we can not understand how bad our condition really is. They discovered that the rivers and streams of the Earth cover an area the size of Texas, which "implies that interactions between rivers and the atmosphere are probably more important than". we did not think so before, "they write in their article. rivers and streams The sushi plays only a modest role in the climate by acting as transport corridors on which they dissolve carbon compounds that are transported into the ocean. For example, rivers release about one-fifth of the carbon dioxide levels emitted by burning fossil fuels and producing cement.

Rivers and streams are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Surface calculations have important implications for understanding carbon emissions.

In this study published in the journal Science the research team was able to directly measure the smallest watercourses and the largest rivers in the world. ground measurements and satellite imagery, and then use a statistical model to estimate river and fluvial coverage across the globe.

The map calculates the surface of rivers more than 90 kilometers wide. This estimate is higher than previous calculations of tens of thousands of square kilometers. Rising estimates of the river's surface are "particularly pronounced" in the Arctic, they note, which are already low for the effects of climate change.