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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 10, NUMBER 1, JANUARY 1997

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d97jan103

New "fingerprint" study: In Science, Nov. 15, 1996, Simon Tett et al. from the U.K. Meteorological Office published new climate modeling work searching for a human influence on recent climate. (See Prof. Pubs./Of Gen. Interest, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Jan. 1997.) They extend a recent study by Santer et al. by using a longer climate record and less restrictive modeling assumptions, and by including the influence of ozone depletion on temperature.

Item #d97jan104

Stratospheric ozone modeling can be very sensitive to the small scale mixing of chemical reactants that is omitted from current chemistry-transport models, according to French researchers. (See Edouard paper, Prof. Pubs./Of Gen. Interest, this Global Climate Change Digest issue--Jan. 1997.) Including fine structure may eliminate the 40% discrepancy between observed and modeled ozone depletion in the Arctic vortex.

Item #d97jan105

Methane hydrates: A feature article in Science News (pp. 298-299, Nov. 9, 1996) explains renewed interest in, and concern about methane hydrates, composites of water and the greenhouse gas methane squeezed into solid form, which usually lie below the seafloor under deep ocean. Recent work suggest that global hydrate deposits contain about 1013 tons of carbon, about double the amount in the combined reserves of coal, oil, and conventional natural gas. Methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas that these hydrates may have played a large role in past climatic changes, and could do so in the future.

Item #d97jan106

An international research team has discovered large deposits of methane hydrates off the U.S. coast near Oregon. It also pointed out that vast quantities are at shallow depths in polar regions, areas especially vulnerable to climate change. (See Chem. & Industry, p. 823, Nov. 4, 1996.)