GeoLog

Atmospheric Sciences

Geosciences Column: Rainfall and Climate – a Dynamic Problem

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike Rain quenches the thirst of soils and vegetation, fuelling ecosystems and much of the world’s agriculture. Whether it ruins a day on the beach or destroys a season’s harvest, it makes humans deeply aware of their vulnerability to the vagaries of the atmosphere. It’s important to understand ...[Read More]

Reaching up High – Aerosol Concentrations at EGU 2013

For those with a keen eye, you may have spotted a red balloon soaring high above the EGU Centre this week. The little white box attached underneath is the Light Optical Aerosol Counter (LOAC), a device that has been measuring the aerosols it the air around the conference. Aerosols are air borne particles that can be liquid or solid, natural or manmade. Salt, fog, sand, plaster and carbon are commo ...[Read More]

Bookends on Planetary Atmosphere

New results presented this week at the EGU General Assembly have scientists adjusting the assumptions that have longed acted as bookends on the way we understand the evolution of planetary atmospheres. On one side, researchers have identified a previously unrecognised greenhouse effect that could have warmed the early Earth. On the other, the Curiosity rover has uncovered evidence that Mars has lo ...[Read More]

Geosciences Column: Tag – you’re it! Chasing atmospheric tracers

I’ve been ruminating over the idea for this post for some time now; since last October in fact, when the EGU Twitter Journal Club discussed a paper about tagging (You can find the Storify for the discussion here). Not tagging as in the playground favourite, but the idea of keeping track of certain molecules in your chemical transport model, so you can follow them as they move through the atm ...[Read More]