Atmospheric

Enjoying your HD TV?  Nitrogen trifluoride is one of several gases used during the manufacture of liquid crystal flat-panel displays, thin-film photovoltaic cells and microcircuits. Many industries have used the gas in recent years as an alternative to perfluorocarbons, which are also potent greenhouse gases, because it was believed that no more than 2 percent of the NF3 used in these processes escaped into the atmosphere. Oops.  Turns out it is at least four times more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated, according to a team of researchers at Scripps Institution…

Today the new Global Carbon Budget was launched simultaneously by Global Carbon Project co-chair Michael Raupach in France at the Paris Observatory, and in the USA at Capitol Hill, Washington by GCP Executive Director Pep Canadell. The Global Carbon Project posted the most recent figures for the worlds' carbon budget, a key to understanding the balance of carbon added to the atmosphere, the underpinning of human induced climate change. Despite the increasing international sense of urgency, the growth rate of emissions continued to speed up, bringing the atmospheric CO2 concentration to 383…

Scientists from Britain's University of York have discovered what they're calling a 'Chemical Equator' that separates the Southern and Northern Hemispheres. This band, which lies in the Western Pacific, is estimated to be 50 km wide and acts as a divider, keeping the pollutants of the northern hemisphere from contaminating that of the hemisphere below. (photo credit: NASA) Although atmospheric pollution has been recorded for some time, the difference in pollution levels within each hemisphere was unexpected; and the number is vast. A study conducted by the University's Department of…

Scientists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council have developed a system that measures the individual layers of cloud above us which will make answering weather questions possible in the future. This Cloud Radar will not only allow forecasters to predict the weather more precisely, the information gathered will also enable aircraft pilots to judge more accurately whether it is safe to take off and land in diverse weather conditions, offering a powerful safety capability for civil airports and military air bases. Developed over 10 years by researchers and engineers at the STFC…

A nesting behavior study has detailed some previously unconsidered effects of biodiversity loss and climate change - changing seabird biodiversity is resulting in more ammonia in the atmosphere. Ammonia emissions from seabirds have been shown to be a significant source of nitrogen in remote coastal ecosystems, contributing to nutrient enrichment (eutrophication) and acidification. While most ammonia emissions originate from domesticated animals such as poultry and pigs, seabirds are the most significant emitters of ammonia to the atmosphere in remote regions. A recent study, “Temporal…

An ongoing rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning of fossil fuels might be kept below harmful levels if emissions from coal are phased out within the next few decades, say researchers. They say that less plentiful oil and gas should be used sparingly as well, but that far greater supplies of coal mean that it must be the main target of reductions, write climatologist Pushker Kharecha and James Hansen of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Global Biogeochemical Cycles. The burning of fossil fuels accounts for about 80 percent of the rise of atmospheric CO2 since the pre-…

An international team of scientists has come up with either a surprising or unsurprising finding about whether air pollution increases or decreases rainfall. Their conclusion: a rather frustrating both, depending on local environmental conditions. In an era of climate change, understanding how rain is impacted by pollution has significant consequences and in an article appearing in Science, the scientific team has published the results of its research untangling the contradictions surrounding the conundrum. They do this by following the energy flow through the atmosphere and the ways it is…

Researchers say that surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were warmer over the last 10 years than any time during the last 1300 years. If the controversial data derived from tree-ring records is considered accurate, the warming is anomalous for at least 1700 years. The proxies used by the researchers included information from marine and lake sediment cores, ice cores, coral cores and tree rings. "Some have argued that tree-ring data is unacceptable for this type of study," says Michael Mann, associate professor of meteorology and geosciences and director of Penn State's Earth…

Global warming data can be like the weather in Kentucky - if you don't like it, just wait a few minutes and it will change. So it goes with the impact of carbon stored in frozen permafrost. In a field beset with both grant-driven hype and irrational optimism, a new study says even the hype was not scary enough. The study, by Edward A. G. Schuur of the University of Florida and an international team of coauthors, more than doubles previous estimates of the amount of carbon stored in the permafrost: the new figure is equivalent to twice the total amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The…

Air circulates above the Earth in four distinct cells, with two either side of the equator, says new research out today in Science. The new observational study describes how air rises and falls in the atmosphere above the Earth’s surface, creating the world’s weather. This process of atmospheric circulation creates weather patterns and influences the climate of the planet. It is important to understand these processes in order to predict weather events, and to improve and test climate models. Previous theories have claimed that there are just two large circular systems of air in the…