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Smog and Air pollution from Asian cities have intensified storms over the Pacific Ocean, which will result in increased warming of the Arctic, scientists have warned. They reported that the number of storm clouds in the region has increased by up to a half over the last 20 years as rapidly industrialized cities in countries such as India and China burn more coal as they grow.
The Pacific’s storm system plays an important role in the circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere, transporting heat and moisture to the northern latitudes. Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, said. This weather system had been affected by aerosols----tiny particles of pollution such as soot produced when burning coal.
“Rapid industrialization and urbanization in Asia have caused severe air pollution over many countries, including China and India. Long- term satellite measurements have revealed a dramatic increase in aerosols concentrations over Asia,” wrote Dr Zhang on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The increasing aerosol trend has been explained by sulphur dioxide and soot emissions, with an increase in sulphur dioxide emissions of 35 per cent per decade over the same region.”
Damian Wilson, an atmospheric scientist at the UK’s meteorological office said the Pacific storms formed in the central part of the ocean and headed west, hitting Canada and the northern US. “It’s caused by the temperature difference between the northerly latitudes and the more southerly, tropical latitudes----the storms mix the heat around.”
The weather system is active all year long, reaching its peak every winter in December and a minimum around July. Aerosols can affect weather by influencing the formation and duration of clouds, but to what extent this happens is not well understood.
“Aerosols affect the size of water droplets,” said Dr Wilson. “The more pollution particles there are in the air, the smaller the water droplets are less likely to run into each other and coalesce into drops of rain, meaning clouds stay in the air longer. To work out how pollution was changing the Pacific Weather System Dr Zhang led a team of researchers in analyzing the information recorded on clouds over the Pacific from 1984 to 2005. They found that the clouds which make up many of Pacific Storms, called deep convective clouds seemed to arise in connection with pollution emission from Asia.
His data showed that these clouds, from 1994 to 2005, increased by 20 to 50 per cent compared with the previous 10 year period. The recent assessment of Global Warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that some of the largest warming occurs over the polar regions.
This is partly due to the reduction in ice cover (which means that less sunlight is reflected away) but also because of the increasing presence of aerosols from pollution in the region. “Warming in the polar regions has catastrophic climate consequences, such as polar ice caps shrinking and sea level rising,” wrote Dr Zhang.
“The change in the Pacific storm track and its associated climate impacts require further studies from a large scientific community, including investigation with global climate models.”
Source: The Guardian
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty
The Pacific’s storm system plays an important role in the circulation of the Earth’s atmosphere, transporting heat and moisture to the northern latitudes. Renyi Zhang, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University, said. This weather system had been affected by aerosols----tiny particles of pollution such as soot produced when burning coal.
“Rapid industrialization and urbanization in Asia have caused severe air pollution over many countries, including China and India. Long- term satellite measurements have revealed a dramatic increase in aerosols concentrations over Asia,” wrote Dr Zhang on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “The increasing aerosol trend has been explained by sulphur dioxide and soot emissions, with an increase in sulphur dioxide emissions of 35 per cent per decade over the same region.”
Damian Wilson, an atmospheric scientist at the UK’s meteorological office said the Pacific storms formed in the central part of the ocean and headed west, hitting Canada and the northern US. “It’s caused by the temperature difference between the northerly latitudes and the more southerly, tropical latitudes----the storms mix the heat around.”
The weather system is active all year long, reaching its peak every winter in December and a minimum around July. Aerosols can affect weather by influencing the formation and duration of clouds, but to what extent this happens is not well understood.
“Aerosols affect the size of water droplets,” said Dr Wilson. “The more pollution particles there are in the air, the smaller the water droplets are less likely to run into each other and coalesce into drops of rain, meaning clouds stay in the air longer. To work out how pollution was changing the Pacific Weather System Dr Zhang led a team of researchers in analyzing the information recorded on clouds over the Pacific from 1984 to 2005. They found that the clouds which make up many of Pacific Storms, called deep convective clouds seemed to arise in connection with pollution emission from Asia.
His data showed that these clouds, from 1994 to 2005, increased by 20 to 50 per cent compared with the previous 10 year period. The recent assessment of Global Warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that some of the largest warming occurs over the polar regions.
This is partly due to the reduction in ice cover (which means that less sunlight is reflected away) but also because of the increasing presence of aerosols from pollution in the region. “Warming in the polar regions has catastrophic climate consequences, such as polar ice caps shrinking and sea level rising,” wrote Dr Zhang.
“The change in the Pacific storm track and its associated climate impacts require further studies from a large scientific community, including investigation with global climate models.”
Source: The Guardian
Compiled By: Saurav Chakraborty
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