Cleaner air as a result of coronavirus lockdown

Lockdowns in early summer 2020 meant that the amount of soot in the atmosphere, which is harmful to the climate and to health, almost halved

11-Aug-2022 - During the first lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic, soot concentrations in the atmosphere over Western and Southern Europe almost halved. This is apparent from the comparison of two measurement campaigns carried out by the German research aircraft HALO in 2017 and 2020. A new study suggests ...

New class of substances detected in atmospheric chemistry

International team reports on highly oxidized hydrotrioxides

31-May-2022 - An international research team has now succeeded in detecting hydrotrioxides (ROOOH) for the first time under atmospheric conditions. Until now, there was only speculation that these organic compounds with the unusual OOOH group exist. In laboratory experiments, their formation during the ...

Oxidation processes in combustion engines and in the atmosphere take the same routes

25-Feb-2021 - Alkanes, an important component of fuels for combustion engines and an important class of urban trace gases, react via another reaction pathways than previously thought. These hydrocarbons, formerly called paraffins, thus produce large amounts of highly oxygenated compounds that can contribute to ...

Rapid pair production: Detection of a new reaction path in the atmosphere

04-Apr-2018 - Scientists have now observed a particularly rapid type of pair production in the laboratory: Hydrocarbons double when two peroxyl radicals react with each other. This means that stable products with the carbon skeleton of both peroxyl radicals are formed, which very likely will have a peroxide ...

Volcanic eruptions slow down climate change

15-Jul-2015 - Although global concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has continuously increased over the past decade, the mean global surface temperature has not followed the same path. A team of international reseachers, KIT scientists among them, have now found an explanation for this slowing ...