Search

The article reports on the climate impacts of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. In its Fourth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that about 50 percent of a carbon dioxide increase will be removed from the atmosphere within 30 years. It is reported that the logarithmic relationship between carbon dioxide and its radiative forcing implies that the time scale at which atmospheric temperature declines will be longer.

As the global research enterprise grapples with the challenge of a low-carbon future, a key challenge is the future of international conferences. An emerging initiative that combines elements of the traditional in-person conference and a virtual conference is a multi-hub approach. Here we report on a real-world trial of a multi-hub approach, the World Climate Research Programme/Stratosphere-Troposphere Processes and their Role in Climate (WCRP/SPARC) General Assembly held in Qingdao-Reading-Boulder during the last week of October 2022 with more than 400 participants. While there are other examples of conferences run in dual-hub or hybrid online and in-person formats, we are not aware of other large atmospheric science conferences held in this format. Based on travel surveys of participants, we estimate that the multi-hub approach reduced the carbon footprint from travel by between a factor of 2.3 and 4.1 times the footprint when hosting the conference in a single location. This resulted in a saving of at least 288 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2eq) and perhaps as much as 683 tCO2eq, compared to having the conference in one location only. Feedback from participants, collected immediately after the conference, showed that the majority would again attend another conference in a similar format. There are many ways that the format of the SPARC General Assembly could have been improved, but this proof of concept provides an inspiration to other groups to give the multi-hub format a try. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are very few large-scale observations of the chemical composition of the Siberian airshed. The Airborne Extensive Regional Observations in Siberia (YAK-AEROSIB) French-Russian research program aims to fill this gap by collecting repeated aircraft high-precision measurements of the vertical distribution of CO2, CO, O3, and aerosol size distribution in the Siberian troposphere on a transect of 4,000 km during campaigns lasting approximately one week. This manuscript gives an overview of the results from five campaigns executed in April 2006, September 2006, August 2007, and early and late July 2008. The dense set of CO2 vertical profiles, consisting of some 50 profiles in each campaign, is shown to constrain large-scale models of CO2 synoptic transport, in particular frontal transport processes. The observed seasonal cycle of CO2 in altitude reduces uncertainty on the seasonal covariance between vegetation fluxes and vertical mixing, known as the 'seasonal rectifier effect.' Regarding carbon dioxide, we illustrate the potential of the YAK-AEROSIB data to cross-validate a global CO2 transport model. When compared to the CO2 data, the model is likely to be biased toward too-weak mixing in winter, as it overestimates the CO2 vertical gradient compared to the observation. Regarding pollutants, we illustrate through case studies the occurence of CO enhancements of 30-50 ppb above background values, coincident with high O3. These high CO values correspond to large-scale transport of anthropogenic emissions from Europe, and to wildfires in the Caspian Sea area, over much cleaner Arctic air (September 2006). An occurence of extremely high CO values above 5,000 km in eastern Siberia is found to be related to the very fast transport and uplift of Chinese anthropogenic emissions caused by a cold front (April 2006). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents world news briefs related to meteorology research. Harvard University researchers have found that the ocean bottom could provide permanent storage for man-made carbon dioxide. The SustainLane.com Web site ranks U.S. cities according to risk of natural disasters, and Miami, Florida emerged at number one. Newcastle University has found that extreme rainfall events are more frequent in specific parts of Great Britain.

Quantification of sources and sinks of carbon at global and regional scales requires not only a good description of the land sources and sinks of carbon, but also of the synoptic and mesoscale meteorology. An experiment was performed in Les Landes, southwest France, during May–June 2005, to determine the variability in concentration gradients and fluxes of CO2. The CarboEurope Regional Experiment Strategy (CERES; see also ) aimed to produce aggregated estimates of the carbon balance of a region that can be meaningfully compared to those obtained from the smallest downscaled information of atmospheric measurements and continental-scale inversions. We deployed several aircraft to concentration sample the CO2 and fluxes over the whole area, while fixed stations observed the fluxes and concentrations at high accuracy. Several (mesoscale) meteorological modeling tools were used to plan the experiment and flight patterns. Results show that at regional scale the relation between profiles and fluxes is not obvious, and is strongly influenced by airmass history and mesoscale flow patterns. In particular, we show from an analysis of data for a single day that taking either the concentration at several locations as representative of local fluxes or taking the flux measurements at those sites as representative of larger regions would lead to incorrect conclusions about the distribution of sources and sinks of carbon. Joint consideration of the synoptic and regional flow, fluxes, and land surface is required for a correct interpretation. This calls for an experimental and modeling strategy that takes into account the large spatial gradients in concentrations and the variability in sources and sinks that arise from different land use types. We briefly describe how such an analysis can be performed and evaluate the usefulness of the data for planning of future networks or longer campaigns with reduced experimental efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on studies related to global climate change which include the structure and evolution of the 1918/1919 El Niño, the local minimum of tropical cyclogenesis over the eastern Caribbean Sea, and the investigation of the carbon dioxide exchange between ecosystems and the atmosphere.

The article discusses the theory that the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is a key factor in the proliferation of green foliage worldwide since the early 1980s. It cites the study published in "Geophysical Research Letters" that supports said theory. The opinion of Randall Donohue of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) on the study results is also cited.

The article focuses on a study which developed a porous solid designated NOTT-300 which can capture nearly 100% of carbon dioxide (CO2) from a mixture of assorted gases and shows an ability to pick out other harmful gases, while allowing oxygen and other non-toxic substances to pass through. The material is made from a relatively simple and inexpensive recipe of water, organic materials and aluminum nitrate salt.

Examines the use of the FLUXNET global network to measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapor and energy between the biosphere and atmosphere. Operation of 140 sites of FLUXNET; Functions of the network; Provision of information for validating computations of net primary production.