The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Assessment Report 6 (AR6), stated that the recent climate change is “widespread, rapid, intensifying and unprecedented in thousands of years.” It is further noted: “Climate change is already affecting every region on Earth in multiple ways. The changes we experience will increase with …
Soot and other particulates have slowed the growth of coral off Belize and Panama Researchers have found the strongest evidence yet that aerosols from burning fossil fuels are affecting coral growth. They say that these sooty particles can cool sea surface temperatures and limit the size of reefs. But they …
Recent crop harvesting practices use mechanical harvesters in the rice and wheat farm system in India. These practices leave behind large quantities of crop residue in the field. However, there is no suitable method available for managing the crop residues. Crop residues / biomass burning are cheap and easiest method …
This study compares observed and model-simulated spatiotemporal patterns of changes in Chinese extreme temperatures during 1961–2007 using an optimal detection method. Four extreme indices, namely annual maximum daily maximum (TXx) and daily minimum (TNx) temperatures and annual minimum daily maximum (TXn) and daily minimum (TNn) temperatures, are studied. Model simulations …
Black carbon aerosol plays a unique and important role in Earth's climate system. Black carbon is a type of carbonaceous material with a unique combination of physical properties. This assessment provides an evaluation of black-carbon climate forcing that is comprehensive in its inclusion of all known and relevant processes and …
Climate data suggest greater warming over the Arctic than lower latitudes, and the most abundant direct source of black carbon and other climate-relevant pollutants over the Arctic is cross-polar flights by international aviation. A relevant question is whether rerouting cross-polar flights to circumnavigate the Arctic Circle reduces or enhances such …
Black carbon is a component of soot, released during combustion, particularly incomplete combustion of fossil fuels or biomass. It is released when carbon is only partially combusted. The main sources of black carbon emissions are burning of biomass in inefficient cooking stoves, diesel emissions from the transport sector and from …
New Delhi: The city experienced shallow fog for the third consecutive day on Wednesday as still air and high moisture levels arising from Cyclone Nilam resulted in low visibility conditions almost through the day. Between 11am and 4pm, the average visibility was 600m at Palam and 500m at Safdarjung. The …
Knowledge of the past variability of climate at high northern latitudes during astronomical analogues of the present interglacial1 may help to inform our understanding of future climate change. Unfortunately, long-term continuous records of ice-sheet variability in the Northern Hemisphere only are scarce because records of benthic 18O content represent an …
The deliberate injection of particles into the stratosphere has been suggested as a possible geoengineering scheme to mitigate the global warming aspect of climate change. Injected particles scatter solar radiation back to space and thus reduce the radiative balance of Earth. Previous studies investigating this scheme have focused primarily on …
Tropical cyclones over the Arabian Sea in the pre-monsoon season (May–June) have intensified since 1997 owing to significant reductions in storm-ambient vertical wind shear (VWS) in the troposphere; these reductions have decreased on average by about 3 m s−1 from the pre-1997 epoch (1979–1997) to the recent epoch (1998–2010)1. The …
Arabian Sea tropical cyclones have become stronger over the past 30 years owing to a reduction in vertical wind shear (VWS) brought about by radiative forcing from pollution aerosols1. Wang et al.2 argue that the decline in VWS results from a systematic shift in storm genesis date, which may be …
Biomass burning (BB) contributes large amounts of black carbon (BC) and particulate organic matter (POM) to the atmosphere and contributes significantly to the earth’s radiation balance. BB particles can be a complicated optical system, with scattering and absorption contributions from BC, internal mixtures of BC and POM, and wavelength-dependent absorption …
Hydrological processes in the humid tropics differ from other regions in having greater energy inputs and faster rates of change. In this Review it is argued that understanding of the key hydrological interactions there remains limited, and a vision of future research designed to address these shortcomings is outlined.
Human exposure to particulate matter (PM) was determined in Urban Environment of Delhi, India. Samples were collected using eight stages impactor (Marple Cascade Impactor) at five sites during August to October 2011. Three samples were collected from each site; samples were analyzed in eight size ranges gravimetrically and chemically (for …
A controversial idea to brake global warming, first floated by the father of the hydrogen bomb, is affordable and technically feasible, but its environmental impact remains unknown, a trio of US scientists say. Sowing the stratosphere with particles to reflect the Sun and cool the planet is possible with current …
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) project have released a report, titled “Impacts of Megacities on Air Pollution and Climate.” The report provides an initial assessment of available information on air pollution and climate impacts in megacities globally. The report concludes that, unless city …
The observed presence of water vapor convectively injected deep into the stratosphere over the United States can fundamentally change the catalytic chlorine/bromine free-radical chemistry of the lower stratosphere by shifting total available inorganic chlorine into the catalytically active free-radical form, ClO. This chemical shift markedly affects total ozone loss rates …
This study looks at changes in North Atlantic tropical storm occurrence in the twenty-first century, and finds that over the first half of the century, storm frequency increases were caused by radiative forcing changes, not increasing carbon dioxide. The chaotic nature of the climate system and the climate response to …
The observed presence of water vapor convectively injected deep into the stratosphere over the United States fundamentally changes the catalytic chlorine/bromine free radical chemistry of the lower stratosphere by shifting total available inorganic chlorine into the catalytically active free-radical form, ClO. This chemical shift markedly affects total ozone loss rates …
