My second day at the AGU 2013 Fall Meeting revolved around more short-lived climate forcers, which I wrote about yesterday and also a broader session on the results from the recent IPCC Working Group 1 report. The latter was an opportunity for the community to quiz some of the lead authors of the report on a …[Read More]
AGU 2013 day 1: Short-lived climate forcers
My first day at AGU 2013 revolved around sessions on short-live climate forcers, which are components in the atmosphere that have short lifetimes (compared to carbon dioxide for example) and generally warm the atmosphere. Reduction of these compounds, such as methane and black carbon, has been mooted as a way to reduce global mean temperatures …[Read More]
A continent on fire
While preparing my poster for the upcoming AGU Fall Meeting, I downloaded some data on fire activity in South America for background on why we are interested in biomass burning in the region. I wanted to quickly check I had the data in the correct format, so I just plotted the coordinates of the fire …[Read More]
Spoiling the view
Probably the most obvious manifestation of air pollution comes when looking out of the window and scanning the horizon – does the landscape go on for miles or is the view reduced? The build-up of air pollution can often dramatically reduce visibility via a shroud of haze. On a recent trip to the Turkish Mediterranean coast …[Read More]
Do you think that’s air you’re breathing?
Air pollution has been a major issue in our atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, with the smoke emanating from the many factories leading to smog settling over our cities and countryside. The author Johanna Schonpenhauer remarked in 1830 that Manchester was: Dark and smoky from the coal vapours, it resembles a huge forge or workshop. …[Read More]
Cooking up some aerosol
Ever wondered how many aerosol particles are emitted by microwaving popcorn? Or how polluted a football match is? I’m going to assume your answer is no but it turns out that science has the answer anyway! Outdoor air pollution is a significant concern but air pollution indoors and in other enclosed spaces is of comparable importance. …[Read More]
An aerosol is born: solving the nucleation recipe
One of the most fundamental aspects of aerosols that we are continually striving to understand is how they are actually born. One pathway that aerosol particles can take is a process known as “nucleation“. This nucleation process is where new particles are formed by gaseous molecules getting together and deciding that they’ve had enough of the gas-phase …[Read More]
The role of aerosol uncertainty in climate change
For those who follow [pun intended] the world of climate science on Twitter, you’ll very likely have noticed a string of tweets from a meeting at the Royal Society on the “Next steps in climate science“. The programme (PDF here) has included a wide range of topics relating to climate science and has included a …[Read More]
Pioneers of aerosol science: John Aitken
One fundamental point on which we have at present little information of anything like a definite character is as to the number of solid particles present in our atmosphere. We know that they are very numerous, and it seems probable the number varies under different conditions of weather; but how many particles are really present …[Read More]
Biomass burning birthday
Last September I spent a month in Brazil for a research project aiming to study the pollution produced by deforestation fires in the Amazon Basin. The fires are mainly started by people for agricultural needs or land clearing for buildings and infrastructure. These fires produce huge amounts of smoke that blanket vast regions of South …[Read More]