Last Updated:
February 28, 2007

GCRIO Program Overview

Library 
Our extensive collection of documents.

Privacy Policy

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

FROM VOLUME 9, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1996

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d96jan91

Methyl bromide, an ozone depleter widely used in agriculture, is destroyed at the ground by bacterial activity, according to new research. This result leads to a lower estimate of ozone depletion potential. (See paper by Shorter in Ozone Depletion/Ozone Depleting Substances, this Digest issue--Jan. 1996; also Science News, p. 278, Oct. 26, 1995; New Scientist, p. 10, Oct. 28; Chem. & Industry, p. 857, Nov. 6.)

Item #d96jan92

UV projections: The paucity of suitable instruments for measuring solar ultraviolet radiation prevents direct determination of any global trends due to ozone depletion. A study intended to circumvent this problem by accounting for the blocking effect of clouds is described by Lubin and Jensen. (See Ozone Depletion/UV Measurement, this Digest issue--Jan. 1996; also The New York Times, p. C4, Oct. 26, 1995.)

Item #d96jan93

Greenland ice growth: Laser altimeter measurements show a significant thickening of part of the Greenland ice cap over the past decade. This is consistent with, but not necessarily a result of, increased high-latitude precipitation from greenhouse warming. (See Krabill paper in Trend Analysis, this Digest issue--Jan. 1996; also New Scientist, p. 18, Nov. 11, 1995.)

Item #d96jan94

Comprehensive global models, with dynamic biogeochemical ecosystem components that interact realistically with the physical climate system, were the focus of a conference in Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany, last September. Presentations suggest that the ability to predict the broad characteristics of regional climate on seasonal to interannual timescales—and any anthropogenic contri-bution—could be realized within the next ten years. (See Nature, p. 12, Nov. 2, 1995.)

Item #d96jan95

Ocean data declassified: The U.S. Navy is starting to release a cold war archive of oceanographic data, a move viewed as a bonanza by scientists. The release has been championed by Vice President Al Gore and a group he set up of about 60 scientists, called Medea (Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis). Medea said the decades of data on ice, temperature and salinity would greatly aid climate studies. Copies of a report on the data can be obtained from Medea (tel: 703 883 5265; fax: 703 883 6190).

Item #d96jan96

The NOAA Postdoctoral Program in Climate and Global Change is accepting applications through March 1, 1996. Request information by phone (303 497 8649) or e-mail (barba @ncar.ucar.edu). (See Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., p. 2496, Dec. 1995)

Item #d96jan97

"Polar Regions Give Cold Shoulder to Theories," D. Normile, Science, p. 1566, Dec. 8, 1995. Climate models predict that global warming will be evident first in the polar regions, but scientists at the recent Wadati International Conference on Global Change and the Polar Regions (Tsukuba, Japan) agreed that detecting climate change in a single region is a lot trickier that was thought a few years ago.

Item #d96jan98

"Global Heat Breeds Superaphids," P. Aldhous, New Scientist, p. 17, Dec. 23-30, 1995. The insecticide-resistant peach potato aphid is already a major agricultural pest in the U.K. Experiments at Rothamsted Experimental Station show that a slight warming of winter temperatures could help it become an even more serious pest.