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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 3, MARCH 1995

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
OF GENERAL INTEREST: CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE

Item #d95mar10

"Biomass Burning: A Driver for Global Change," J.S. Levine (NASA-Langley, Hampton VA 23681), W.B. Cofer III et al., Environ. Sci. & Technol., 29(3), 120A-125A, Mar. 1995.

Biomass burning, primarily from African savannahs, contributes as much as 40% of the gross carbon dioxide and 39% of the tropospheric ozone. Observations from space and from international field experiments have documented the extent and frequency of fires and the concentrations of emitted carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and halogen compounds. In addition to being an instantaneous global source of atmospheric gases, burning enhances the biogenic emission of nitric and nitrous oxides from soils, and affects the reflectivity and emissivity of the Earth's surface and its hydrological cycle. It is therefore a significant driver of global change.

Item #d95mar11

"Changes in Cloud Properties due to NOx Emissions," M. Kulmala (Dept. Phys., POB 9 [Sitavuorenpenger 20 D], SF-00014, Univ. Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland), P. Korhonen et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 22(3), 239-242, Feb. 1, 1995.

Discusses a mechanism as an alternative to the proposal that the Northern Hemisphere may be warming more slowly than the Southern Hemisphere because of the direct and indirect effects of sulfate aerosols. The mechanism put forth involves increased concentrations of condensable vapors such as HNO3 and HCl that could activate an increased number of pre-existing aerosol particles to act as cloud condensation nuclei. Since NOx emissions are being reduced more slowly than SOx emissions, the implications for climate change could be important.

Item #d95mar12

"On the Role of CH₄ in Atmospheric Chemistry: Sources, Sinks and Possible Reductions in Anthropogenic Sources," P.J. Crutzen (M. Planck Inst. Chem., POB 3060, D-55020 Mainz, Ger.), Ambio, 24(1), 52-55, Feb. 1995.

Discusses the sources and sinks of atmospheric methane, mostly based on compilations by the IPCC but updated by the author's ongoing studies. There are ample opportunities for substantially reducing anthropogenic methane emissions; a 10% reduction would achieve stabilization of atmospheric methane. Also shows that the extensive use of catalytic converters to reduce NO emissions from automobiles results in substantially larger emissions of N₂O, another important greenhouse gas.

Item #d95mar13

"Iceberg Discharges into the North Atlantic on Millennial Time Scales During the Last Glaciation," G.C. Bond (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observ., Rte. 9W, Palisades NY 10964), R. Lotti, Science, 267(5200), 1005-1010, Feb. 17, 1995.

Analysis of deep sea sediment cores shows that prominent increases in iceberg calving recurred at intervals of 2000 to 3000 years, and correlate with warm-cold oscillations (Dansgaard-Oeschger events) in Greenland ice cores. Each cycle records synchronous discharges of ice from different sources, and the cycles are decoupled from sea surface temperatures, suggesting an atmospheric mechanism that caused rapid oscillations in air temperatures above Greenland and in calving from more than one ice sheet.

Item #d95mar14

"Equable Climates During the Early Eocene: Significance of Regional Paleogeography for North American Climate," L.C. Sloan (Inst. Marine Sci., Univ. Calif., Santa Cruz CA 95064), Geology, 22(10), 881-884, Oct. 1994.

The character of continental-interior paleoclimate at mid-latitudes, especially temperature, has been a major source of debate over the past few years. In the climate model study presented here, cases with six times the present level of CO₂, or with doubled CO₂ and a large lake in western North America, produced results most similar to proxy paleoclimate interpretations. The presence of the lake is critical to reproducing the early Eocene climate. (See RESEARCH NEWS.)