Tiny particles of pollution may carry large consequences for Earth's water supply

[Guest guest]

Public release date: 6-Dec-2001

Contact: Mario Aguilera or Cindy Clark scrippsnews 858-534-3624

University of California - San Diego

 

According to a United Nations Population Fund report released Nov. 7, water

use has grown six-fold over the past 70 years. " Water may be the resource

that defines the limits of sustainable development, " the report notes.

 

A new study issued by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at

the University of California, San Diego, argues that particles of

human-produced pollution may be playing a significant role in weakening

Earth's water cycle, much more than previously realized. The study was

funded in part by NASA and used new satellite data from NASA's Terra

satellite revealing the global nature of the particles.

 

Tiny aerosols primarily made up of black carbon, the authors argue, can

lead to a weaker hydrological cycle, which connects directly to water

availability and quality, a major environmental issue of the 21st century.

 

The paper, based on results obtained during the international Indian Ocean

Experiment (INDOEX), is published in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Science.

 

" Initially we were seeing aerosols as mainly a cooling agent, offsetting

global warming. In this article we are saying that perhaps an even bigger

impact of aerosols is on the water budget of the planet, " said Scripps

Professor V. Ramanathan, who along with Professor Paul Crutzen, a co-author

of the new study, led the INDOEX science team as co-chief scientists.

" Through INDOEX we found that aerosols are cutting down sunlight going into

the ocean. The energy for the hydrological cycle comes from sunlight.==

 

As sunlight heats the ocean, water escapes into the atmosphere and falls

out as rain. So as aerosols cut down sunlight by large amounts, they may be

spinning down the hydrological cycle of the planet. "

 

The fourth co-author of the paper, Daniel Rosenfeld, also notes that these

aerosol particulates may be suppressing rain over polluted regions. Within

clouds, aerosols can limit the size of cloud droplets, stifling the

development of the larger droplets required for efficient raindrops.

 

The INDOEX project involved more than 150 scientists across several

disciplines from Austria, France, Germany, India, Maldives, the

Netherlands, Sweden, and the United States. The $25 million project,

sponsored by the National Science Foundation and funded in part by NASA,

the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, focused on the Indian Ocean region in a " multiplatform "

analysis approach of satellites, aircraft, ships, surface stations, and

balloons. The project was designed to assess the nature and magnitude of

the chemical pollution over the tropical Indian Ocean and to assess the

significance of the region's aerosols.

 

A wide range of results from the project-from meteorology to chemistry -are

presented in 25 papers published in a special issue of the Journal of

Geophysical Research released Nov. 27.

 

Early in the project, INDOEX researchers documented a human-produced

brownish-gray haze layer of about 10 million square kilometers over the

Indian-Asian region. The particles within the haze, the researchers

discovered, were causing a three-fold decrease in solar radiation reaching

the earth's surface as compared with the top of the atmosphere. The

aerosols, typically in the submicrometer- to micrometer-size range, were a

mixture of sulfates, nitrates, organic particles, fly ash, and mineral

dust, formed by fossil fuel combustion and rural biomass burning.

 

" One of the key revelations from INDOEX is that air pollution is not only

an industrial

phenomenon, " said Scripps Professor Crutzen, 1995 Nobel Laureate. " The part

of the atmosphere that you would expect to be the cleanest-the areas

without a lot of industrialization-in fact can be very highly polluted,

especially during the dry season. "

 

In the new Science paper, Ramanathan, Crutzen, J.T. Kiehl (National Center

for Atmospheric Research), and Rosenfeld (The Hebrew University of

Jerusalem), say the aerosol issues raised from INDOEX are a " major

environmental concern. " Not only do they question the role aerosols are

playing on the regional and global hydrological cycle, but, they say,

globally averaged, the aerosol increases the solar heating of the

atmosphere accompanied by a reduction in the solar heating of the surface

of the planet and these effects maybe quite comparable with the forcing due

to greenhouse gases.

 

" At present these effects are not generally accounted for in climate model

prediction studies, but we will need to include the absorbing aerosols in

future model predictions, " said Kiehl.

 

The immediate next step, the authors argue, is to develop a reliable global

inventory of aerosol emission rates, life times, and concentrations.

Integrating innovative new satellite observations, field experiments, and

laboratory studies with models will pave the way for breakthroughs in our

understanding of aerosols and how they are modifying the environment, they say.

 

" Part of these results are important for creating awareness, " said Crutzen.

" The biomass burning in the countries that are producing this pollution

cannot go on. "

 

###

 

In addition to the National Science Foundation, the Science study was

funded by the Department of Energy and NASA.

 

Note: Images available at

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/releases2001/indoex_water.html

Scripps Institution of Oceanography on the World Wide Web:

http://scripps.ucsd.edu Scripps News on the World Wide Web:

http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu

 

Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San

Diego, is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for global

science research and graduate training in the world. The scientific scope

of the institution has grown since its founding in 1903. A century of

Scripps science has had an invaluable impact on oceanography, on

understanding of the earth, and on society. More than 300 research programs

are under way today in a wide range of scientific areas. Scripps operates

one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research

ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration. Now plunging

boldly into the 21st century, Scripps will celebrate its centennial in 2003.

 

Series of new INDOEX articles shows the affects of human-produced aerosols

Images available upon request

 

 

 

******

Kraig and Shirley Carroll ... in the woods of SE Kentucky

thehavens

http://www.thehavens.com/

http://www.legacyforlife.net/thehavens

606-376-3363

 

" Cancer was a blessing that continues to this day "

Expect Miracles

 

We only have one Earth.

There are NO SPARE PARTS.

We must PROTECT OUR WORLD!

Please protect your world.