Some chemicals less damaging to ozone can degrade to long-lived greenhouse gas

05-Nov-2015 - Some substitutes for ozone-damaging chemicals being phased out worldwide under international agreements are themselves potent greenhouse gases and contribute to warming. Now, a new study, shows for the first time how some of those replacement chemicals can break down in the atmosphere to form a ...

The role of goop: Research shows pollution doesn't change the rate of droplet formation

20-Feb-2013 - When it comes to forming the droplets that make up clouds, a little oily and viscous organic material apparently doesn't matter that much. And that's good news for reducing the uncertainty of climate model predictions. Understanding cloud formation is essential for accurate climate modeling, and ...

Atmosphere cleans itself more efficiently than previously thought

Concentration of pollutant-degrading hydroxyl radicals in the air remains stable worldwide

17-Jan-2011 - The earth's atmosphere is less sensitive to pollutants than some researchers previously thought. An international team of researchers, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, has found that the concentration of hydroxyl radicals in the atmosphere has changed ...

Do dust particles curb climate change?

08-Oct-2009 - 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. Research has made little or no ...

NOAA study shows nitrous oxide now top ozone-depleting emission

31-Aug-2009 - Nitrous oxide has now become the largest ozone-depleting substance emitted through human activities, and is expected to remain the largest throughout the 21st century, NOAA scientists say in a new study. For the first time, this study has evaluated nitrous oxide emissions from human activities ...