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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 8, NUMBER 4, APRIL 1995

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
OF GENERAL INTEREST: GLOBAL WARMING SCIENCE

Item #d95apr15

"The Roles of Carbon Dioxide and Water Vapour in Warming and Cooling the Earth's Troposphere," J. Barrett (Dept. Chem., Imperial Coll., S. Kensington, London SW7 2AY, UK), Spectrochim. Acta, 51A(3), 415-417, Mar. 1995.

The widely held notion that rising levels of CO₂ will lead to atmospheric warming, and current global model simulations of that effect, depend on certain assumptions. The atmosphere is assumed to behave as a continuous emitter of broad spectrum cavity-type radiation as it re-emits the initially absorbed terrestrial radiation, and vibrational fluorescence of CO₂ is assumed to occur substantially at all altitudes. This article presents evidence countering these assumptions. (See RES. NEWS.)

Item #d95apr16

"Evaluation of the Potential Impact of Methane Clathrate Destabilization on Future Global Warming," L.D.D. Harvey (Dept. Geog., Univ. Toronto, Toronto ON M5S 1A1, Can.), Z. Huang, J. Geophys. Res., 100(D2), 2905-2926, Feb. 20, 1995.

Methane clathrates, icelike compounds found in permafrost regions and in ocean sediments, are a potential source of positive warming feedback if rising temperatures release the trapped methane. Model simulations using a variety of anthropogenic emission scenarios and parameter assumptions show that the potential impact on global warming is smaller than the warming difference between low and medium, or medium and high, anthropogenic CO₂ emission scenarios.

Item #d95apr17

"Planned EOS Observation of the Land, Ocean and Atmosphere," J. Dozier (Ctr. Remote Sensing, Univ. California, Santa Barbara CA 93106), Atmos. Res., 31(4), 329-357, Apr. 1994.

Describes in detail the Earth Observing System, the major NASA contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Based on a series of satellites with sensors designed to measure the crucial variables to study processes and monitor changes in the land, ocean, and atmosphere, it is to be launched beginning in 1998. The information collected, to be handled using the existing EOS Data and Information System, will address the highest priority science and policy questions identified by the Committee on Earth and Environmental Sciences and the IPCC.

Item #d95apr18

"Long-Term Study of the Natural Environment-Perceptive Science or Mindless Monitoring?" (See GENERAL & POLICY section)