White smokers on the lake floor

Spectacular chimneys discovered in the Dead Sea

Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

 

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HALITE CHIMNEYS / New type of submarine smokers in the Dead Sea

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Credit: UFZ

The Dead Sea is a highly dynamic system: Its level has been dropping by roughly one meter per year for more than 50 years, because it is cut off from key tributaries and is losing large quantities of water through evaporation as a result of drought and heat. The surface has thus dropped to roughly 438 meters below sea level. This decline in the lake, which borders Israel, Jordan and the West Bank under Palestinian administration, has significant consequences, especially for the groundwater. The groundwater level is falling, making it increasingly difficult for neighbouring countries to access groundwater resources. For many years, UFZ hydrogeologist Dr. Christian Siebert has been researching how the dynamics of the groundwater system in this region are changing and how aquifers are finding new paths in the rock strata both on land and below the Dead Sea. A team of divers he deployed has now discovered chimney-shaped vents on the lake floor that discharge a shimmering fluid. "These bear a striking similarity to black smokers in the deep sea, but the system is completely different," says the UFZ researcher. Scientists from the fields of mineralogy, geochemistry, geology, hydrology, remote sensing, microbiology and isotope chemistry from a total of ten research institutions were involved in investigating and analysing the phenomenon.

 

While black smokers along the mid-ocean ridge emit hot water containing sulphides at a depth of several thousand metres, the researchers in the Dead Sea discovered that highly saline groundwater flows out through the chimneys at the bottom of the lake. But where is the salt coming from? The explanation: The groundwater from the surrounding aquifers penetrates into the saline lake sediments, leaching out extremely old and thick layers of rock consisting mainly of the mineral halite. It then flows into the lake as brine. "Because the density of this brine is somewhat lower than that of the water in the Dead Sea, it rises upwards like a jet. It looks like smoke, but it's a saline fluid," explains Christian Siebert. Contact with the lake water causes the dissolved salts, especially the halite, to spontaneously crystallize after emerging from the lake bed, where it forms the vents observed for the first time in the world. These can grow by several centimetres within a single day. Many of the slender chimneys were one to two meters high, but they also include giants more than seven meters high, with a diameter of more than 2-3 meters. Minuscule traces of 36Cl, a radioisotope from space, and the genetic verification of freshwater microbes in the water from the chimneys have shown that the white smokers have their origin in the aquifers in the surrounding area. The salts were thus not absorbed until the last few meters before the water entered the Dead Sea.

 

These white smokers are especially important because they can serve as an early warning indicator for sinkholes. These are subsidence craters up to 100 meters wide and up to 20 meters deep, thousands of which have formed along the Dead Sea in recent decades. They are formed by karstification of the subsoil, i.e. by the dissolution of massive layers of salt. This forms giant cavities above which the ground can collapse at any time. "To date, no one can predict where the next sinkholes will occur. They are also life-threatening and pose a threat to agriculture and infrastructure," says Christian Siebert. The research team was able to show that the chimneys had formed wherever the land surface subsequently collapsed over a large area and the karstification process had apparently been especially efficient. "This makes the white smokers an outstanding forecasting tool for locating areas that are at risk of collapse in the near future," he says. Autonomous watercraft equipped with multibeam echosounders or side-scanning sonar systems could be used to map the chimneys to a high degree of precision. "This would be the only method to date, and a highly efficient one, for identifying regions at risk of imminent collapse."

An individual submarine chimney at a depth of roughly 30 m.

Sinkhole

  

Entrance area to Mineral Beach on the Dead Sea. The sinkhole formed overnight and fortunately no one was injured.

Credit

UFZ

Journal

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176752 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

A new type of submarine chimneys built of halite

 

European initiative to clear old munitions from the seas

Project launch of MMinE-SwEEPER at GEOMAR

Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)

Whether it is the Baltic, the North Sea, the Mediterranean or the Black Sea, there is no European sea without a significant amount of old munitions. The remnants of war not only threaten fishing, shipping and other uses, but also pose a growing threat to marine ecosystems and human health. Over time, metal casings corrode, explosives lie exposed on the seabed and toxins leach into the environment. However, clearance is complex and can itself pose a potential risk to the marine environment.

MMinE-SWEEPER is the first major project to tackle this problem on a European scale. Under the leadership of Professor Dr Jens Greinert from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, scientifically sound technical solutions for munitions clearance in European waters will be developed and tested. The EU is supporting the project with almost six million euros in funding.

“Removing munitions from our waters is not only a matter of safety, but also a responsibility towards future generations,” says Professor Dr Jens Greinert, marine geologist and munitions expert at GEOMAR. “With MMinE-SwEEPER, we want to come closer to a European solution, share knowledge, advance technologies and, most importantly, improve communication between EU countries on this sensitive security issue.”

On 13-14 November, the 20 international project partners are meeting in Kiel, Germany, for a kick-off meeting to initiate the first steps of this ambitious project. The aim is to develop a systematic approach to the detection, assessment and clearance of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in order to minimise risks to people and the environment, and to protect biodiversity and people. The results of MMinE-SwEEPER will not only provide a scientific basis for sustainable munitions clearance, but will also serve as a basis for EU-wide standards and guidelines.

Representatives from two Directorates-General of the European Commission are also involved: the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE) and the Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME). Their role is to develop, implement and manage EU policies, legislation and funding programmes.

Professor Greinert: “I hope, and am very confident, that this project will finally lead to a truly European approach to this problem in time to mitigate the serious problems.”

 

Key Objectives of the MMinE-SwEEPER Project:

• Pooling Knowledge and Management Approaches: The project consolidates existing knowledge and experience from different countries and international projects. Relevant stakeholders from authorities, business, and civil society will be involved to develop solutions for munitions clearance.
• Promoting Technological Advances: A key focus is on the further development of robotics, 3D imaging, and AI-supported analysis tools for munitions detection and classification. Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) equipped with intelligent algorithms will be developed to identify munitions objects.
• Real-world Testing and Validation: New technologies and methods will be tested in artificial test areas and real dump sites across Europe.
• Building Capacity and Strengthening Collaboration: The project will promote the exchange of knowledge between European countries and different stakeholders by organising training sessions, webinars, and workshops. The aim is to create a sustainable community of experts and to strengthen collaboration between the public and private sectors.
• Strengthening European Cooperation: The project fosters cooperation within Europe by introducing new technologies for munitions clearance and advising policy-makers on developing solutions.

Funding:

The MMinE-SwEEPER project (Marine Munition in Europe - Solutions with Economic and Ecological Profits for Efficient Remediation) is funded by the EU under the Horizon Europe research funding programme (Cluster 3: Civil Security for Society) with almost six million euros until March 2028.

 

Humans, not AI, are always accountable for healthcare decisions, say experts at QF’s WISH 2024

A panel of bioethicists and legal experts discussed the ethical implications of AI in healthcare at the global conference in Doha

WISH/QF

 

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Citation: (Left to Right); UK Health Minister Andrew Gwynne; Dr. Barry Solaiman, Assistant Professor of Law at HBKU; Dr Tamar Schiff, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU; Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director, EURO; Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Professor of Islam and Bioethics at the Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University; along with the moderator

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Credit: World Innovation Summit for Health

14 November 2024. Doha, Qatar — A panel of bioethicists, legal and policy experts at the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) discussed the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare, focussing on accountability and the importance of including diverse data sets.

The discussion on the ethics of AI in healthcare, held at the end of the summit’s first day, was based on the report ‘AI and Healthcare Ethics in the Gulf Region: An Islamic Perspective on Medical Accountability’. This session featured the report’s lead author Dr. Mohammed Ghaly, Professor of Islam and Bioethics at the Centre for Islamic Legislation and Ethics at Qatar Foundation’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Prof Ghaly said that accountability for the outcomes of decisions of AI-enabled medical technologies needs to lay squarely with people: “It doesn’t matter how smart the machine is, it cannot be responsible for any mistakes.” He added that responsibility will no longer lie with the physician alone. Instead, we need to also hold developers, programmers and data scientists to account for data bias. “We are moving into a world of collective liability,” Ghaly said.  

The panel highlighted several challenges to the ethical management of AI-enabled medical technologies. This issue of accountability is compounded by the complexity and opacity of AI algorithms, which can obscure the decision-making process and diffuse blame. Issues related to privacy and data protection, obtaining informed consent, addressing social disparities, considerations of medical consultation, and the aspects of empathy and sympathy pose additional challenges in the integration of AI.

The expert panel also included Dr. Barry Solaiman, Assistant Professor of Law at HBKU; Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director, EURO; UK Health Minister Andrew Gwynne, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention; and Dr Tamar Schiff, Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU.

The data used to train AI is central to understanding “what biases are baked into it,” said Dr. Schiff. In order to develop AI-enabled health systems that worked for everyone, the data needs to come from diverse data sets, the panel agreed.

While much of existing data sets currently being used to train AI in healthcare is based on data gathered in Western countries, “There are well resourced countries that can produce their own data and come to the table. We need entities from around the world to contribute,” said Dr. Ghaly.  

This year, WISH was opened in the presence of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation and founder of WISH. The opening ceremony, held at Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha, included speeches from Her Excellency Dr. Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Qatar’s former Minister of Public Health; Lord Darzi of Denham, Executive Chair of WISH; and Christos Christou, President of Médecins Sans Frontières. 

The theme of WISH 2024 is ‘Humanizing Health: Conflict, Equity and Resilience’. It aims to highlight the need for innovation in health to support everyone, leaving nobody behind and building resilience, especially among vulnerable societies and in areas of armed conflict.

Ahead of the summit, WISH entered into a strategic partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), collaborating on the development of a series of evidence-based reports and policy papers, as well as working with the United Nations’ health agency to develop a post-summit implementation strategy. 

The summit features more than 200 experts in health speaking about evidence-based ideas and practices in healthcare innovation to address the world’s most urgent global health challenges.

AI method can spot potential disease faster, better than humans

Washington State University

 

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Traditionally, researchers and medical professionals identify pathology, or signs of disease, by analyzing and annotating tissues under a microscope like the image of testis (tubule atrophy) disease pictured here -- a process that can take many hours for one slide or image. The “deep learning” AI model developed at WSU was able to identify pathologies much faster than humans, sometimes catching signs that human pathologists had missed.

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Credit: Courtesy of Eric Nilsson, Skinner Laboratory, Washington State University

PULLMAN, Wash. – A “deep learning” artificial intelligence model developed at Washington State University can identify pathology, or signs of disease, in images of animal and human tissue much faster, and often more accurately, than people.

The development, detailed in Scientific Reports, could dramatically speed up the pace of disease-related research. It also holds potential for improved medical diagnosis, such as detecting cancer from a biopsy image in a matter of minutes, a process that typically takes a human pathologist several hours.

“This AI-based deep learning program was very, very accurate at looking at these tissues,” said Michael Skinner, a WSU biologist and co-corresponding author on the paper. “It could revolutionize this type of medicine for both animals and humans, essentially better facilitating these kinds of analysis.”

To develop the AI model, computer scientists Colin Greeley, a former WSU graduate student, and his advising professor Lawrence Holder trained it using images from past epigenetic studies conducted by Skinner’s laboratory. These studies involved molecular-level signs of disease in kidney, testes, ovarian and prostate tissues from rats and mice. The researchers then tested the AI with images from other studies, including studies identifying breast cancer and lymph node metastasis.

The researchers found that the new AI deep learning model not only correctly identified pathologies quickly but did so faster than previous models – and in some cases found instances that a trained human team had missed.

“I think we now have a way to identify disease and tissue that is faster and more accurate than humans,” said Holder, a co-corresponding author on the study.

Traditionally, this type of analysis required painstaking work by teams of specially trained people who examine and annotate tissue slides using a microscope—often checking each other’s work to reduce human error.

In Skinner’s research on epigenetics, which involves studying changes to molecular processes that influence gene behavior without changing the DNA itself, this analysis could take a year or even more for large studies. Now with the new AI deep learning model, they can get the same data within a couple weeks, Skinner said.

Deep learning is an AI method that attempts to mimic the human brain, a method that goes beyond traditional machine learning, Holder said. Instead, a deep learning model is structured with a network of neurons and synapses. If the model makes a mistake, it “learns” from it, using a process called backpropagation, making a bunch of changes throughout its network to fix the error, so it will not repeat it.

The research team designed the WSU deep learning model to handle extremely high-resolution, gigapixel images, meaning they contain billions of pixels. To deal with the large file sizes of these images, which can slow down even the best computer, the researchers designed the AI model to look at smaller, individual tiles but still place them in context of larger sections but in lower resolution, a process that acts sort of like zooming in and out on a microscope.

This deep learning model is already attracting other researchers, and Holder’s team is currently collaborating with WSU veterinary medicine researchers on diagnosing disease in deer and elk tissue samples.

The authors also point to the model’s potential for improving research and diagnosis in humans particularly for cancer and other gene-related diseases. As long as there is data, such as annotated images identifying cancer in tissues, researchers could train the AI model to do that work, Holder said.

“The network that we’ve designed is state-of-the-art,” Holder said. “We did comparisons to several other systems and other data sets for this paper, and it beat them all.”

This study received support from the John Templeton Foundation. Eric Nilsson, a WSU research assistant professor in the School of Biological Sciences, is also a co-author on this paper.

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-76807-x 

Article Title

Scalable deep learning artificial intelligence histopathology slide analysis and validation

Tackling antimicrobial resistance named a global health priority at QF’s WISH 2024

World health leaders highlight global actions needed to keep antibiotics working for the next century

WISH/QF



Participants at the WISH panel include L-R: Dame Sally Davies, UK AMR special envoy; Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director (EMRO); Dr Christos Christou, International President, Médecins Sans Frontières; and Dr Nour Shamas, Clinical Pharmacist and WHO Task force AMR survivor; H.E. Dr. Karin Tegmark Wisell, Ambassador of Global Health, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swedenview more


Credit: World Innovation Summit for Health

 

Living microbes discovered in Earth’s driest desert

American Society for Microbiology

Highlights:

• The Atacama Desert is one of the most extreme habitats on Earth.
• Atacama surface soil samples include a mix of DNA from inside and outside living cells.
• A new technique allows researchers to separate external and internal DNA to identify microbes colonizing this hostile environment.
• This approach for analyzing microbial communities could potentially be applied to other hostile environments, like those on other planets. 

Washington, D.C.—The Atacama Desert, which runs along the Pacific Coast in Chile, is the driest place on the planet and, largely because of that aridity, hostile to most living things. Not everything, though—studies of the sandy soil have turned up diverse microbial communities. Studying the function of microorganisms in such habitats is challenging, however, because it’s difficult to separate genetic material from the living part of the community from genetic material of the dead.

A new separation technique can help researchers focus on the living part of the community. This week in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, an international team of researchers describes a new way to separate extracellular (eDNA) from intracellular (iDNA) genetic material. The method provides better insights into microbial life in low-biomass environments, which was previously not possible with conventional DNA extraction methods, said Dirk Wagner, Ph.D., a geomicrobiologist at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, who led the study.

The microbiologists used the novel approach on Atacama soil samples collected from the desert along a west-to-east swath from the ocean’s edge to the foothills of the Andes mountains. Their analyses revealed a variety of living and possibly active microbes in the most arid areas. A better understanding of eDNA and iDNA, Wagner said, can help researchers probe all microbial processes. 

“Microbes are the pioneers colonizing this kind of environment and preparing the ground for the next succession of life,” Wagner said. These processes, he said, aren’t limited to the desert. “This could also apply to new terrain that forms after earthquakes or landslides where you have more or less the same situation, a mineral or rock-based substrate.” 

Most commercially available tools for extracting DNA from soils leave a mixture of living, dormant and dead cells from microorganisms, Wagner said. “If you extract all the DNA, you have DNA from living organisms and also DNA that can represent organisms that just died or that died a long time ago.” Metagenomic sequencing of that DNA can reveal specific microbes and microbial processes. However, it requires sufficient good-quality DNA, Wagner added, “which is often the bottleneck in low-biomass environments.” 

To remedy that problem, he and his collaborators developed a process for filtering intact cells out of a mixture, leaving behind eDNA genetic fragments left from dead cells in the sediment. It involves multiple cycles of gentle rinsing, he said. In lab tests they found that after 4 repetitions, nearly all the DNA in a sample had been divided into the 2 groups. 

When they tested soil from the Atacama Desert, they found Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria in all samples in both eDNA and iDNA groups. That’s not surprising, Wagner said, because the living cells constantly replenish the store of iDNA as they die and degrade. “If a community is really active, then a constant turnover is taking place, and that means the 2 pools should be more similar to each other,” he said. In samples collected from depths of less than 5 centimeters, they found that Chloroflexota bacteria dominated in the iDNA group. 

In future work, Wagner said he plans to conduct metagenomic sequencing on the iDNA samples to better understand the microbes at work, and to apply the same approach to samples from other hostile environments. By studying iDNA, he said, “you can get deeper insights into the real active part of the community.”
 

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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of over 32,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.

ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences.

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Journal

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

 

Of tiny organisms and their giant impact on the ocean

Susanne Neuer receives Petersen Foundation Excellence Professorship

Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)

The ocean absorbs about a quarter of annual carbon dioxide emissions. One mechanism that facilitates this is known as the biological carbon pump. This process starts with the photosynthesis of tiny microscopic algae, phytoplankton, floating in the sunlit upper layers of the ocean. Professor Dr Susanne Neuer and her team study the Biological Carbon Pump, focusing particularly on the role of plankton organisms in the formation of sinking particles, both in the laboratory and at sea. Since 2004, she has been a Professor of Marine Biogeochemistry at Arizona State University in Tempe, USA. Since 2022, she is also the founding director of the new School of Ocean Futures. For her contributions, she has been awarded the 31st Excellence Professorship of the Prof. Dr Werner Petersen Foundation, which includes €20,000 in funding and a six-week research stay at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel.

Dr h.c. Klaus Wichmann, Chair of the Prof. Dr Werner Petersen Foundation, said: “On behalf of the Foundation, I am very pleased to award another outstanding scientist with an Excellence Professorship today. Since its inception in 2009, the Excellence Initiative has been an indispensable part of our mission to promote scientific excellence in Schleswig-Holstein and to intensify international cooperation. It is an honour for us to continue to support this and I hope that this initiative will set an example for others to follow.”

Professor Dr Katja Matthes, Director of GEOMAR, congratulated the awardee: “I am delighted that we can honour Susanne Neuer with this well-deserved award. With her outstanding research on the biological carbon pump, she has made an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the processes that influence our climate. Professor Neuer has excelled not only as a scientist but also as a mentor. She is a dedicated advocate for the advancement of women in science, having played leading roles with the Association for Women in Science and at Arizona State University. Her expertise and extraordinary achievements have made her a leading voice internationally. We are proud to welcome her to GEOMAR today and look forward to the inspiring contributions she will make during her stay.”

In her laudatio, Professor Dr Anja Engel, Head of the Marine Biogeochemistry Research Division at GEOMAR, emphasised the importance of the awardee's research: "Professor Neuer plays a leading and internationally visible role in marine biogeochemistry, the carbon cycle and particle export. Her highly acclaimed work has contributed significantly to our current understanding of the biological carbon pump in the ocean. Her analyses of ocean time series have laid the foundation for comparative studies of the efficiency of this central mechanism in the carbon cycle".

Insights into the Work of the Ocean’s Biological Carbon Pump

In her keynote lecture, Susanne Neuer discussed the significance of the Biological Carbon Pump for our planet’s climate. A fascinating aspect of this mechanism is the formation of so-called marine snow—sticky aggregates of phytoplankton, bacteria, and other organic matter held together by larger particles such as dust. These aggregates can grow large enough to be visible to the naked eye and form the basis for the transport of carbon into the deep ocean. Planktonic animals such as krill and copepods also contribute to carbon export by releasing phytoplankton particles into the ocean's twilight zone, an area of near darkness where the light barely penetrates.

“The processes initiated by phytoplankton and bacteria in the upper ocean layers of the ocean are a fundamental component of the long-term storage of CO2 and thus play a critical role in the context of climate change,” explained Prof. Neuer. “In the deep ocean, there is a fascinating interplay between microscopic cells that not only remove carbon from the atmosphere, but also sustain life throughout the ocean,” said Neuer. “The next time you look at the ocean, think of all the microscopic life in the water and all that it does for the well-being of our planet.”

Back to the roots: a reunion with Kiel and the chance for new collaborations

Kiel is not new territory for Susanne Neuer: some 40 years ago, she began her training as a marine scientist here at the former Institut für Meeresforschung (IfM), before moving on to the USA for further studies. This is not the first time she has returned to Kiel to talk about her research either. At the invitation of GEOMAR's Women's Executive Board, she gave a talk in 2016 as part of the Marie Tharp Lectures, discussing career issues with young female scientists.

“I am very honoured to receive the Excellence Professorship,” she says, “it will allow me to expand my collaboration with GEOMAR and especially with Prof. Dr Anja Engel and to develop synergies in our research on the biology of the global carbon cycle.” She is particularly looking forward to the exchange with young scientists at GEOMAR. Susanne Neuer: “It is important that the next generation receives special support in their careers so that they can not only be successful, but also make a sustainable contribution to solving environmental problems.”

 

About the Prof. Dr Werner Petersen Foundation

The Prof. Dr Werner Petersen Foundation, based in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, aims to promote science, research, technology, and culture. A central area of support is the Excellence Initiative, which, in close cooperation with GEOMAR, honours outstanding scientists with international reputations. Through this initiative, leading marine scientists from around the world are invited to come to Kiel as guest scientists for up to six weeks.

 COP29

Global partnership channels more than USD 1 billion to scale up weather services for hundreds of millions of farmers across Asia, Latin America and Africa

University of Chicago

BAKU, November 14, 2023 — At the COP29 World Leaders Climate Action Summit, the Agriculture Innovation Mechanism for Scale (AIM for Scale) unveiled its first-ever, groundbreaking Innovation Package, aimed at providing weather information to help farmers adapt to the impacts of climate change. Future Innovation Packages will expand efforts to scale additional solutions addressing the interconnected challenges of climate change, food security, and agriculture.

AIM for Scale, in partnership with the Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture, designed an Innovation Package to empower the generation and dissemination of weather forecasts to hundreds of millions of farmers. The Package recognizes the transformative potential of AI-supported weather forecasting to help national meteorological and hydrological services (NMHS) produce high-quality, farmer-centered forecasts. Co-producing and disseminating these forecasts to millions of farmers can build resilience and support adaptation as climate change makes weather patterns less predictable. This process will build on previous efforts and consider varying needs across countries, while emphasizing gender equity and inclusion to ensure broad and equitable impact.

A consortium of global partners has committed to mobilizing significant investments over the next three years to drive the implementation of the AIM for Scale Weather Package. Highlights of these announcements include:

Following on its food security ambition during 2022–2025, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will invest approximately $300 million in advanced weather forecasts tailored for the needs of farmers in Asia and the Pacific as part of ADB’s portfolio of food security operations during 2025-2027. ADB also announced a $600,000 technical assistance grant to facilitate the investment. Food security is a top priority under ADB’s updated Strategy 2030.

The Inter-American Development Bank expects to leverage weather forecasts in its portfolio of $280 million in loans in the coming three years and announced that it has programmed $600,000 of grant resources to support countries to introduce AI-based weather forecasts tailored to farmers’ needs in the IDB´s agriculture lending portfolio in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The World Bank is currently investing $1.46 billion in Data, Digital Agriculture and Innovations investments that align with the AIM for Scale Weather Package. These investments, of which about $591 million are in the Africa region, support georeferenced farmer registries, soil information systems, climate smart advisories, early warning systems, and pest diagnostic, and will provide the ideal vehicle to transmit high-quality, timely weather information to millions of Africa farmers.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and NASA, working with Congress and through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience (PREPARE), announced plans to expand the SERVIR program to Central America, investing $6.6 million in the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). The new regional hub will launch in early December. SERVIR uses satellite data and geospatial technologies to expand access to early warning systems helping communities prepare and adapt to extreme weather events. The new SERVIR Central America Hub will collaborate with local, national, and regional partners to bolster the resilience of more than 40 million people, including 11 million people directly employed in agriculture. 

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of India plans to digitally deliver weather forecasts to tens of millions of farmers, building on a successful initiative that reached 9.45 million in 2024.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Community Jameel announced the scale-up of the Jameel Observatory-CREWSnet, using climate modeling, research and technological innovation to initially support 8 million smallholder farmers in Bangladesh at risk from climate change, in collaboration with BRAC.

The Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) and the University of Chicago’s Human-Centered Weather Forecasts and AI for Climate (AICE) initiatives, in partnership with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF), launched a research and training program to improve access to high-quality, farmer-centered AI-supported predictions in more than 30 LMICs. The program will leverage SOFF’s Peer Advisor Network to provide continued support to NMHS. 

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) will provide guidance and technical assistance on weather observation, data management and exchange, forecasting, and agrometeorological weather and climate service development and delivery. 

The United Nations Systematic Observations Financing Facility (SOFF) committed to support countries, in particular Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries, to close today’s significant weather and climate data gaps through the long-term grant financing and peer-to-peer technical assistance.

Her Excellency Dr. Amna al Dahak, Minister for Climate Change and Environment of the UAE, welcomed the launch of AIM for Scale following the achievements of the AIM for Climate platform, saying: “Only three years ago at COP26, the UAE and the United States of America launched AIM for Climate to mobilize investments in food systems innovation worldwide. Our success has been truly transformative. Today, with the launch of AIM for Scale, we are accelerating our efforts to find highly promising, climate-friendly agricultural innovations and breaking down barriers to their scaling.”

In prepared remarks regarding the announcement, Her Excellency Mariam Almheiri, Head of the International Affairs Office at the Presidential Court of UAE, emphasized the importance of international collaboration: “The UAE’s partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was launched to mobilize actions like the AIM for Scale Weather Package announced at COP29. Through this partnership, we seek to accelerate food systems transformation and climate action.  Many innovations have the potential to improve the lives and livelihoods of climate-vulnerable people, but additional coordination and targeted investments are necessary to transition them to scale.” 

Professor Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization welcomed the partnership, noting: “More and better data leads to better weather forecasts, early warning systems and climate information services for agriculture and other vital economic sectors. Closing basic data gaps will also help inform AI models.” Professor Saulo added that “the agriculture sector is undoubtedly one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate variability and change. Additional partnerships are needed to ensure that farmers are involved in the coproduction of weather and climate services which will enhance resilience and adaptation in the agriculture sector.”

Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, President of the WMO and Director General of the National Center of Meteorology (NCM) of the UAE, highlighted the importance of providing farmers with weather information: “Today’s launch of the AIM for Scale Weather Package marks a vital step forward in supporting millions of farmers on the front lines of climate change. By improving the reach of accurate, farmer-centered weather forecasts, we can equip vulnerable populations with the information they need to adapt to unpredictable conditions. This initiative underscores the importance of partnerships, technology, and accessible data to build resilience where it’s needed most.”

Fatima Yasmin, Vice-President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), stated that “ADB, as the climate bank of Asia, recognizes the transformational importance of weather forecasts for advancing climate change adaptation in Asia and the Pacific. In this context, ADB is engaging in this Partnership with the ambition of increasing access to high-quality weather forecasts for any economic sector, and with the objective to scale up and boost evidence-based investments for weather forecasts for farmers and digital agriculture.”

“Food insecurity and hunger have actually worsened in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past decade. Increasing agricultural productivity, and small farmers’ output in particular, will be a key part in reversing this trend. Providing more accurate and relevant weather forecasting to small farmers will improve decision making around planting, harvesting and fertilizer use, leading to higher incomes and poverty reduction,” said Jordan Schwartz, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Executive Vice President.

Nobel laureate Michael Kremer, Chair of the Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture and Chair of AIM for Scale’s Advisory Panel, highlighted the significance of these investments: “There is a wealth of evidence that smallholder farmers benefit from high-quality weather forecasts. Yet, the challenge of reaching hundreds of millions of farmers remains. AIM for Scale is a vital step toward filling this gap by leveraging new investments and global partnerships.”

Regarding the launch of the research and training program to improve access to high-quality, farmer-centered forecasts, Professor Timothy Baldwin, MBZUAI Provost and Professor of Natural Language Processing, noted: “MBZUAI is proud to leverage the potential and power of AI to identify and develop solutions that drive real-world impact. Like many sectors, agriculture is affected by climate change, and farmers, particularly in the Global South, need urgent and reliable access to data that will inform their decision-making and support national food security agendas. As a leading research university that is dedicated to artificial intelligence, we are committed to supporting improved access to high-quality, AI-supported weather forecasting for farmers in 30 low-and-middle-income countries.” 

Throughout its COP28 Presidency, the UAE has highlighted the power of agricultural innovation as a critical engine to help communities adapt and transform food systems in the face of climate change. Key announcements were made on food security and climate action at COP29’s World Leaders Climate Action Summit as countries sustain momentum implementing the COP28 UAE Declaration on Agriculture, Food Systems, and Climate Action (the Declaration), launched in Dubai by 160 heads of state.

AIM for Scale, first announced at COP28 as part of a new partnership between the UAE and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a multi-partner effort to transition evidence-based, cost-effective innovations to scale for the benefit of farmers affected by climate change. 

The Innovation Commission for Climate Change, Food Security, and Agriculture is an independent initiative at the University of Chicago that identifies innovations with rigorous evidence of impact and cost-effectiveness, as well as early-stage innovations with high expected returns, and generates recommendations to transition them to scale.

Electric field signals reveal early warnings for extreme weather, study reveals

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

New study reveals how monitoring atmospheric electric fields can enhance the prediction of severe weather events. The researchers found significant electric field changes during heavy precipitation by analyzing data from southern Israel. These findings suggest that electric field measurements can serve as early indicators for extreme weather, offering vital nowcasting capabilities, particularly in regions prone to flash floods and sudden shifts in weather.

 A new study led by Dr. Roy Yaniv from the Institute of Earth Sciences at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Sheba Medical Center, in collaboration with Dr. Assaf Hochman from The Hebrew University and Prof. Yoav Yair from Reichmann University, has made significant advances in understanding how atmospheric electric field measurements can help predict severe weather events. By closely examining low-pressure winter weather systems, known as 'Cyprus Lows,' in the arid Negev Desert of southern Israel, this research reveals new insights into the role of the electric field in anticipating heavy precipitation.

Focusing on 'wet' Cyprus Lows—situations where rain falls as a cold front moves through—researchers observed substantial increases in the Potential Gradient of the electric field. Minute-by-minute data showed Potential Gradient values rising sharply from typical fair-weather levels (around 100-200 volts per meter) to hundreds and even thousands of volts per meter during rainfall. These surges occurred as convective clouds passed overhead, indicating that different cloud types produce unique electric field patterns. The study also highlighted that factors beyond rain intensity, such as cloud structure and the electrical charge of rain droplets, play roles in these electric fluctuations.

Through these findings, the researchers identified how electric field variations correlate with specific weather conditions. This enhanced understanding of electric field responses to weather events could significantly improve nowcasting systems for predicting extreme weather, particularly in regions prone to flash floods and sudden weather changes. In Israel, situated between desert and Mediterranean climates, slight shifts in a low-pressure system’s location can lead to dramatic changes in local weather. Consequently, monitoring electric field dynamics may provide early warning signs of severe weather, enhancing community preparedness in a changing climate.

“This research demonstrates how electric field variations can serve as indicators of shifting weather patterns, allowing us to anticipate severe weather events in real-time,” said Dr. Roy Yaniv. “The ability to identify these changes early is especially crucial in vulnerable regions like Israel, where even minor shifts in climate conditions can lead to major local impacts.”

This study highlights the importance of incorporating electric field observations into weather monitoring systems, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions that are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

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Journal

Atmospheric Research

DOI

10.1016/j.atmosres.2024.107757 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Understanding heavy precipitation events in southern Israel through atmospheric electric field observations