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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
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FROM VOLUME 4, NUMBER 12, DECEMBER 1991

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d91dec74

Sun and Climate: A recent paper by Danish researchers demonstrates a remarkable correlation between the global temperature over the past century and the exact length of the roughly 11-year sunspot cycle. Proof of this correlation will require several more decades of observation. (See Friis-Christensen and Lassen, Science, p. 698, Nov. 1, 1991, listed in Prof. Pubs./Of Gen. Interest, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Dec. 1991.) Many previous attempts to establish associations between solar activity and the atmosphere have proved fruitless, but they generally relied on sunspot number as an index of solar activity. Even if the relationship is maintained in the future, significant effects from greenhouse warming are not precluded, and there is no way of predicting whether the sun's influence would contribute to warming or cooling. Other implications for greenhouse warming are discussed in Science, pp. 652-653, Nov. 1, and New Scientist, p. 22, Nov. 23.

Item #d91dec75

"Warmth Doth Stretch Antarctica's Tongues," R. Monasterskey, Sci. News, p. 311, Nov. 16, 1991. New geological evidence suggests that the ice shelves surrounding Antarctica have expanded in past warm periods, not contracted as might be expected. (See Domack et al., Geology, p. 1059, Nov. 1991, listed in Prof. Pubs./Antarctic Ice Sheet, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Dec. 1991.)

Item #d91dec76

"UV Pours Through Ozone Hole," Sci. News, p. 214, Oct. 5, 1991. Ground measurements show that the radiation reaching Antarctica last summer may have been the strongest the region has experienced since the ozone layer formed a billion years ago. (See Frederick and Alberts paper listed in Prof. Pubs./UV Measurements, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Dec. 1991.)

Item #d91dec77

"The Restructured Earth Observing System: Instrument Recommendations," B. Moore III, Eos, pp. 505, 510, 516, Nov. 12, 1991. Extensive summary of an October meeting of the Payload Advisory Panel for EOS, which has revised and reduced the original instrument plan of 1990. Summarizes cost savings of the revised plan, what has been lost, and what is at risk.

Item #d91dec78

In the Sep. 1991 Global Change NewsLetter (IGBP Secretariat, Roy. Swedish Acad. Sci., Box 50005, S-104 05 Stockholm, Swed.):

"Strategy for Global Modelling Developed at Stockholm," pp. 1-2. Report from the third meeting of the Scientific Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program.

"Ocean Biogeochemistry and Air-Sea CO₂ Exchange," P. Williamson, T. Platt., pp. 3-4. Discusses multidisciplinary Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) studies in the North Atlantic that have illustrated the complex nature of the influence of phytoplankton on the exchange of CO₂ between the ocean and atmosphere.

"Past Global Changes: Defining Research Activities," J. Eddy, pp. 5-8. A synopsis of the implementation plan for PAGES (Past Global Changes), which grew out of the first meeting of the PAGES Scientific Steering Committee (March 1991).