Key Compound of Ozone Destruction Detected
Atmospheric studies above Northern Scandinavia with a balloon-borne infrared spectrometer confirm existing polar ozone chemistry models. (Photo: MIPAS-B-Team, KIT)
For the first time, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) scientists have successfully measured in the ozone layer the chlorine compound ClOOCl which plays an important role in stratospheric ozone depletion. The doubts in the established models of polar ozone chemistry expressed by American researchers based on laboratory measurements are disproved by these new atmospheric observations. The established role played by chlorine compounds in atmospheric ozone chemistry is in fact confirmed by KIT’s atmospheric measurements.
The ozone hole above the Antarctic and the destructive role of chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and their decomposition products have become a synonym of both global environmental problems and their solution by concerted agreements worldwide. Scientific fundamental research into ozone chemistry of the atmosphere was the basis of international agreements, such as the Montreal Protocol of 1987, which has put limits on CFC production. The success of the political implementation of these scientific findings is reflected by the fact that the chlorine content of the atmosphere and, hence, the ozone destruction potential recently started to decrease slowly.
For the first time, scientists from the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK) have detected using atmospheric infrared measurements the important, but rather unstable chlorine monoxide dimer (ClOOCl) that plays a central role in stratospheric ozone destruction at the end of the Arctic winter. During the polar winter after sunrise, ClOOCl rapidly forms atomic chlorine which may catalytically decompose ozone. The extent of ClOOCl decay caused by the short-wave sunlight determines the extent of stratospheric polar ozone decomposition. (more…)
Atmospheric Nanoparticles Impact Health & Weather Professor Says
Layers of Earth's atmosphere, brightly colored as the sun rises over central Asia. (NASA)
Nanoparticles are atmospheric materials so small that they can’t be seen with the naked eye, but they can very visibly affect both weather patterns and human health all over the world – and not in a good way, according to a study by a team of researchers at Texas A&M University.
Researchers Renyi Zhang, Alexei Khalizov, Jun Zheng, Wen Xu, Yan Ma and Vinita Lal in the Departments of Atmospheric Sciences and Chemistry say that nanoparticles appear to be growing in many parts of the world, but how they do so remains a mystery.
Their work is published in the current issue of Nature Geoscience and was funded by the National Science Foundation and The Welch Foundation.
The team looked at how nanoparticles are formed and their relationship with certain organic vapors responsible for additional growth.
“This is one of the most poorly understood of all atmospheric processes,” Zhang says. “But we found that certain types of organics tend to grow very rapidly. When this happens, they scatter light back into space, and that definitely has a cooling effect – sort of a reverse ‘greenhouse effect.’ It can alter Earth’s weather patterns and it also tends to have a negative effect on human health.” (more…)
Space Shuttle: Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment
ANDE-2 consists of two spherical microsatellites, Pollux and Castor, that are both 19 inches in diameter but have different masses. ANDE-2 is a low-cost mission designed to study the atmosphere of the Earth from low-Earth orbit by monitoring total atmospheric density between 300 and 400 km altitude.
The Naval Research Laboratory’s satellite suite, the Atmospheric Neutral Density Experiment 2 (ANDE-2), launched aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour on July 15, 2009. The ANDE-2 satellite suite consists of two nearly perfectly spherical micro-satellites with instrumentation to perform two interrelated mission objectives. The first objective is to monitor the total atmospheric density along the orbit for improved orbit determination of resident space objects. The second is to provide a test object for both radar and optical U.S. Space Surveillance Network sensors.
ANDE-2 is a low-cost mission designed to study the atmosphere of the Earth from low-Earth orbit by monitoring total atmospheric density between 300 and 400 km altitude. ANDE-2 data will be used to improve methods for the precision orbit determination of space objects and to calibrate the Space Fence, a radar space surveillance system belonging to the Air Force 20th Space Control Squadron, a principal resource for tracking low-Earth orbiting space satellites. (more…)
Billion-Year Life Extension for Earth Predicted
Roughly a billion years from now, the ever-increasing radiation from the sun will have heated Earth into inhabitability; the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that serves as food for plant life will disappear, pulled out by the weathering of rocks; the oceans will evaporate; and all living things will disappear.
Or maybe not quite so soon, say researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), who have come up with a mechanism that doubles the future lifespan of the biosphere—while also increasing the chance that advanced life will be found elsewhere in the universe.
A paper describing their hypothesis was published June 1 in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). (more…)
Scientists Pinpoint the ‘Edge of Space’
Where does space begin? Scientists at the University of Calgary have created a new instrument that is able to track the transition between the relatively gentle winds of Earth’s atmosphere and the more violent flows of charged particles in space – flows that can reach speeds well over 1000 km/hr. And they have accomplished this in unprecedented detail.
Data received from the U of C-designed instrument sent to space on a NASA launch from Alaska about two years ago was able to help pinpoint the so-called edge of space: the boundary between the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space. (more…)
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