From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri Apr 18 2003 - 01:36:11 MDT
There may be a serendipitous result of human-caused air pollution. That is, a
reduction in the harmful impact of a greenhouse effect. Jerry Pournelle once
speculated that perhaps all the pollution was holding a new Ice Age in
abeyance, but that is not what the following article is claiming. Still, its
along the same track as what Pournelle mused about.
http://www.llnl.gov/str/April03/Chuang.html
<<During the past few years, Chuang and colleagues including Joyce Penner
(now at the University of Michigan), Keith Grant, Jane Dignon, Peter Connell,
Daniel Bergman, and Douglas Rotman have used Livermore’s TeraCluster2000
multiparallel supercomputer and the resources of the National Energy Research
Scientific Computing Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to model
how anthropogenic aerosols affect global and regional climate. The researchers
’ simulations show in unprecedented detail how aerosols are partially
offsetting the effect of global warming and changing the properties of
clouds. In some industrial regions, the generation of aerosols from fossil
fuel combustion and biomass (forest and grassland) burning may be as
important to climate change as greenhouse gases. Also, climate changes caused
by aerosols vary significantly by season and by region.
The research team belongs to the Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols Group,
part of the Atmospheric Science Division of Livermore’s Energy and
Environment Directorate. The team’s advanced simulations, whose findings have
been corroborated by field measurements at different geographical locations,
build on Livermore’s expertise in aerosols, climate, chemistry, and
supercomputer simulations. The research has received funding from the
Department of Energy, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Laboratory Directed
Research and Development. The work also contributes to fulfilling the goals
of the federal government’s National Aerosol Climate Interactions Program, an
interagency effort created last year.
Chuang explains that aerosol concentrations from natural sources, such as
volcanoes, sea spray, and desert dust storms, are believed to have remained
generally steady over the past century. However, like greenhouse gases,
anthropogenic aerosols have increased markedly since 1950. Based on satellite
data, models, and information on urban and agricultural activities,
scientists believe anthropogenic aerosols currently contribute about half of
the total submicrometer-size aerosols in the atmosphere. Most of the
anthropogenic aerosols are sulfates and carbonaceous compounds produced by
the burning of fossil fuels and biomass....>>
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