In the “interesting news” department, ScienceDaily reports on new evidence of tides caused by heating of the upper atmosphere, which may explain the long mysterious atmospheric pressure peaks observed in tropical latitudes. Read here.

For over two centuries, meteorologists were puzzled by the observation that atmospheric pressure in the tropics peaks at 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. nearly every day. In the late 1960s, a theory was proposed that these surface pressure variations result from waves that are generated by the sun’s heating of the upper atmosphere.