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How aerosols contribute to climate change

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 23, 2009 at 12:13 pm

From Science Daily:

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens on the way there is a different story. As imaged by Lynn Russell, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and her team, air blown by winds between San Diego and Las Vegas gives the road to Sin City a distinctive look.

The team has sampled air from the tip of the Scripps Pier since last year, creating a near real-time record of what kinds of particles — from sea salt to car exhaust — are floating around at any given time. Add data about wind speed and direction and the scientists can tell where particles came from and can map their pathways around Southern California.

When Russell and her students put it all together, the atmosphere of greater San Diego comes alive in colors representing the presence of different airborne chemical compounds in aerosol form. One streak of deep red draws a distinct line from the pier that sometimes extends all the way to Las Vegas. The red denotes organic mass, a carbon-based component of vehicular and industrial emissions that pops up on Russell’s readouts frequently. Plot the streak on a road atlas and it reveals the daily life of pollution in Southern California. For one stretch of time, it neatly traced Interstate 15 all the way past the California-Nevada border.

“We were really surprised,” said Russell. “We did not expect to have such consistent winds for the selected study days.”

Read more from Science Daily by clicking here.

June 23, 2009 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply

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