Weinzierl found more large particles, such as mineral dust, high in the atmosphere than had been predicted. This mission allowed her to compare particle cocktails in pristine skies from away from human influence, with those in the highly polluted skies over the eastern Mediterranean. The Austrian professor also took part in an experiment with a NASA research aircraft that flew from the North Pole down to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, to the outer rim of Antarctica and back up the Atlantic Ocean. Similarly, such particles can fog predictions about climate. ![]() Weinz i erl observed that when lots of dust was present, even local weather forecasts tended to be less accurate. It also used lasers to track particles in the air. ![]() The aircraft flew as low as 300 metres and as high as 12 km. The eastern Mediterranean is an ideal location, because it contains soot from biomass burning, dust from the Sahara Desert and from the Arabian D esert and sulphates and black carbon from traffic and industrial fumes. During 22 flights, the aircraft took in air to analyse the particles swirling above and around Cyprus in 2017. To sample what is floating around in our skies, project scientists flew the twin-engine Dassault Falcon 20 from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in the eastern Mediterranean. Weinzierl tracks man-made pollutants and natural particles like dust from deserts in the atmosphere in a project called A-LIFE. The types of particles influence the properties of those clouds. Scientists must carry out a bookkeeping exercise, totting up how much some particles warm the Earth, subtracting how much others cool our planet.Ĭomplicating the picture, particles seed the water droplets that eventually make up clouds. Some other particles reflect light away from the Earth. Mineral dust absorbs light, but not as strongly. Black carbon absorbs heat and causes the air to warm. The effects of particle types differ too. On the other hand, the quantity and type of aerosol particles in the atmosphere vary depending on where you look. ‘ While carbon dioxide stays in the air for hundreds of years, black carbon lives on for just weeks in the atmosphere, ’ explained Professor Bernadett Weinzierl, atmospheric and aerosol scientist at the University of Vienna, Austria.Ĭarbon dioxide is a gas that mixes so well that its concentrations are pretty much the same over Naples as over Hawaii. But it is very different from carbon dioxide. This black stuff ranks as the second largest contributor to climate change. Especially important is black carbon, the soot wafting off from burning vegetation and traffic fumes. This rise has been happening since the start of the Industrial Revolution and w e now know a lot about how this gas behaves, traps heat and warms the Earth.Ī far more mysterious influence on climate comes from particles - or aerosols - suspended in air. The leading cause of climate change is rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
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