Atmospheric

the Earth's natural biogeochemical cycles must be better understood before Geoengineering efforts are undertaken as a means to help mitigate climate change, according to two studies in Nature Geoscience which discuss what drove large-scale changes to the carbon cycle nearly 100 million years ago. Both research teams conclude that a massive amount of volcanic activity introduced carbon dioxide and sulfur into the atmosphere, which in turn had a significant impact on the carbon cycle, oxygen levels in the oceans and marine plants and animals. "These two complementary studies provide a much…

An international team of climate scientists say they have developed a new approach to modeling the earth's climate that will improve the accuracy of future models utilized by the IPCC and provide the framework for thousands of individual scientific studies on climate impacts and adaptation, and changes in the way societies generate and use energy. Previous scenarios used by the IPCC usually assumed that no one would try to reduce climate change. Today, policymakers and researchers are interested in exploring ways to limit changes. Understanding the impacts and interactions of activities such…

 Data collected since the pre-industrial age indicates that the mean surface pH of the world's oceans has declined from 8.2 to 8.1 units with another 0.4 unit decline possible by century's end, according to a new study in Oceanography. A single whole pH unit drop would make ocean waters 10 times more acidic, which could rob many marine organisms of their ability to produce protective shells – and tip the balance of marine food chains, the study warns. The delicate balance of life in the waters that surround the frozen continent of Antarctica is especially susceptible to the effects of…

In recent years, climate change hasn't proceeded as most scientists expected. Global surface temperatures have not risen as fast in the last decade as they did in the 1980s and 1990s, and researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say they may know why--fluctuations in stratospheric water vapor. The team's new study in Science suggests that Just a 10 percent drop in water vapor ten miles above Earth’s surface has had a big impact on global warming. Observations from satellites and balloons show that stratospheric water vapor has had its ups and downs lately,…

Painting the roofs of buildings white may reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect by as much as 33 percent, significantly cooling off cities and helping society adjust to the changing climate, suggests a new study soon to be published in Geophysical Research Letters. The study's authors used a newly developed computer model to simulate the amount of solarradiation that is absorbed or reflected by urban surfaces. The model simulations, which provide scientists with an idealized view of different types of cities around the world, indicate that, if every roof were entirely painted…

Along with drastic reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, a team of climate scientists says internationally coordinated research and field-testing on geoengineering the planet's atmosphere need to begin immediately in order to limit risk of climate change. In a new Nature editorial, the team argues that collaborative and government-supported studies on solar-radiation management, a form of geoengineering, would reduce the risk of nations' unilateral experiments and help identify technologies with the least risk. "Solar-radiation management (SRM) may be the only human response that can fend…

The Antarctic ozone hole was once regarded as one of the biggest environmental threats facing. But the discovery of a previously unknown feedback shows that it has instead helped  shield this region from carbon-induced warming over the past two decades. Now, the hole in the ozone layer is steadily closing, and its repair could actually increase warming in the southern hemisphere, according to a study appearing later this in week Geophysical Research letters. High-speed winds in the area beneath the hole have led to the formation of brighter summertime clouds, which reflect more of the…

2009 was tied for the second warmest year on record, and in the Southern Hemisphere, last year was the warmest on record, according to a new analysis of global surface temperatures by NASA scientists. Although 2008 was the coolest year of the decade because of a strong La Nina that cooled the tropical Pacific Ocean, 2009 saw a return to a near-record global temperatures as the La Nina diminished, according to the new analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The past year was a small fraction of a degree cooler than 2005, the warmest on record, putting 2009 in…

While most researchers and policy makers are looking to new technologies to slow the pace of climate change, scientists from Cornell University and the University of New South Wales are reporting that "biochar" — a material that the Amazonian Indians used to enhance soil fertility centuries ago — has potential in the modern world to help slow global climate change. Mass production of biochar could capture and sock away carbon that otherwise would wind up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. . Writing in Environmental Science&Technology, Kelli Roberts and…

 The Tibetan Plateau—thought to be the primary source of heat that drives the South Asian monsoon—may have far less of an effect than moist, warm air insulated over continental India by the Himalayas and other surrounding mountains, say Harvard climate scientists writing this week in Nature. The team says that understanding the monsoon's proper origin, especially in the context of global climate change, is crucial for the future sustainability of the region. The findings also have broad implications for how the Asian climate may have responded to mountain uplift in the past, and for how…