http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. It's no secret that the emissions leaving a car tailpipe or factory smokestack affect climate and air quality. Even trees release chemicals that influence the atmosphere. But until now, scientists have struggled to know where these organic molecules go and what happens to them once they leave their source, leading to models for predicting climate and air quality that are incomplete or less than accurate. http://www.physorg.com/news179677214.html Space & Earth Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:50:04 EST news179677214 (PhysOrg.com) -- A team of researchers from eight institutions led by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has solved a software and hardware problem that had perplexed scientists studying atmospheric aerosols for climate research. Not only did they fix the problem, but the instrument now performs better than it did when it was new. http://www.physorg.com/news179521919.html Space & Earth Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:00:03 EST news179521919 Aerosols, very small particles suspended in the air, play an important role in the global climate balance and in regulating climate change. They are one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in climate change models. ESA's GlobAerosol project has been making the most of European satellite capabilities to monitor them. http://www.physorg.com/news177080138.html Space & Earth Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:56:02 EST news177080138 (PhysOrg.com) -- A knowledge gap exists in the area of climate research: for decades, scientists have been asking themselves whether, and to what extent man-made aerosols, that is, dust particles suspended in the atmosphere, enlarge the cloud cover and thus curb climate warming. http://www.physorg.com/news174049928.html Space & Earth Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:30:06 EST news174049928 (PhysOrg.com) -- Aircraft emissions can affect the properties of cirrus clouds, contributing to climate change. This was a key finding from PNNL scientist Dr. Xiaohong Liu and his colleagues from a recent study. The team concluded that black carbon and/or metallic material from airplane exhaust could affect radiant heat and climate by acting as efficient sources for making ice crystals, thus affecting the creation of cirrus clouds. http://www.physorg.com/news173364041.html Space & Earth Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:41:09 EST news173364041 New research announced at the International Water in a Changing Climate Science Conference in Melbourne 24-28 August, implicates pollution from Asia, Europe and North America as a contributor to recent Australian rainfall changes. Australian scientists using a climate model that includes a treatment of tiny particles - or aerosols - report that the build up of these particles in the northern hemisphere affects their simulation of recent climate change in the southern hemisphere, including rainfall in Australia. http://www.physorg.com/news170499861.html Space & Earth Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:20:01 EST news170499861 The discovery of an unknown hitherto chemical compound in the atmosphere may help to explain how and when clouds are formed. The discovery of the so called dihydroxyepoxides (an aerosol-precursor), is reported in this week's issue of Science by a team comprising of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the University of Copenhagen. http://www.physorg.com/news169202056.html Chemistry Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:34:47 EST news169202056 A previously unrecognized player in the process by which gases produced by trees and other plants become aerosols -microscopically small particles in the atmosphere -has been discovered by a research team led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology. http://www.physorg.com/news168786970.html Space & Earth Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:17:13 EST news168786970 Billions of tonnes of water droplets vanish from the atmosphere, as if by magic, in events that reveal in detail how the Sun and the stars control our everyday clouds. Researchers of the National Space Institute in the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have traced the consequences of eruptions on the Sun that screen the Earth from some of the cosmic rays - the energetic particles raining down on our planet from exploded stars. http://www.physorg.com/news168353215.html Space & Earth Sat, 01 Aug 2009 14:10:01 EST news168353215 Particulate pollution thought to be holding climate change in check by reflecting sunlight instead enhances warming when combined with airborne soot, a new study has found. http://www.physorg.com/news165517024.html Space & Earth Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:00:02 EST news165517024 To stretch a supply of salt generally means using it sparingly. http://www.physorg.com/news165054350.html Nanotechnology Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:26:36 EST news165054350 Particles cool down the climate, but to which extent? This has remained an unanswered question for scientists. A new article in Science by Gunnar Myhre at CICERO, Norway, brings the scientific community a step closer to solving the mystery. http://www.physorg.com/news164613355.html Space & Earth Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:10:01 EST news164613355 (PhysOrg.com) -- Global warming may include some periods of local cooling, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Results from satellite and ground-based sensor data show that sweltering summers can, paradoxically, lead to the temporary formation of a cooling haze in the southeastern United States. http://www.physorg.com/news161886252.html Space & Earth Mon, 18 May 2009 17:24:39 EST news161886252 (PhysOrg.com) -- Though greenhouse gases are invariably at the center of discussions about global climate change, new NASA research suggests that much of the atmospheric warming observed in the Arctic since 1976 may be due to changes in tiny airborne particles called aerosols. http://www.physorg.com/news158423459.html Space & Earth Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:31:29 EST news158423459 (PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny, ubiquitous particles in the atmosphere may play a profound role in regulating global climate. But the scientists who study these particles -- called aerosols -- have long struggled to accurately measure their composition, size, and global distribution. A new detection technique and a new satellite instrument developed by NASA scientists, the Aerosol Polarimetry Sensor (APS), should help ease the struggle. http://www.physorg.com/news156086477.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:22:26 EST news156086477 (PhysOrg.com) -- Dust blown off the continents and deposited in the open ocean is an important source of nutrients for marine phytoplankton, the tiny algae that are the foundation of the ocean food web. But new findings show that some sources of dust also carry toxic elements that can kill marine phytoplankton. http://www.physorg.com/news155842133.html Space & Earth Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:31:39 EST news155842133 Aerosols may have a greater impact on patterns of Australian rainfall and future climate change than previously thought, according to leading atmospheric scientist, CSIRO's Dr. Leon Rotstayn. http://www.physorg.com/news153673213.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:01:01 EST news153673213 Scientists need a more detailed understanding of how human-produced atmospheric particles, called aerosols, affect climate in order to produce better predictions of Earth's future climate, according to a NASA-led report issued by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program on Friday. http://www.physorg.com/news151383514.html Space & Earth Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:58:34 EST news151383514 A group of scientists affiliated with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) have proposed a new framework to account more accurately for the effects of aerosols on precipitation in climate models. Their work appears in the 5 September issue of Science magazine. http://www.physorg.com/news139829576.html Space & Earth Fri, 05 Sep 2008 10:32:56 EST news139829576 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using a novel theoretical approach, researchers from NASA and other institutions have identified the common thread that determines how aerosols from human activity, like the particles from burning of vegetation and forests, influence cloud cover and ultimately affect climate. The study improves researchers` ability to predict whether aerosols will increase or decrease cloud cover. http://www.physorg.com/news137945726.html Space & Earth Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:15:26 EST news137945726 An aerosol mass spectrometer developed by chemists from Aerodyne Research Inc. and Boston College is giving scientists who study airborne particles the technology they need to examine the life cycles of atmospheric aerosols - such as soot - and their impact on issues ranging from climate change to public health. http://www.physorg.com/news136197142.html Chemistry Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:32:22 EST news136197142