Ozone mystery is solved
In theory, the creation of ozone – caused by the breakdown of oxygen in the atmosphere by ultraviolet light – is a mass-independent process. However, experiments by Klaus Mauersberger and ...
Humans are the cause of climate change
The team looked in particular for ‘lag time’ effects in the data. For example, the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 lowered the global temperature by 0.3 C in the followi...
CERN plans global-warming experiment
Experimentalists at CERN will use a cloud chamber to mimic the Earth’s atmosphere in order to try and determine whether cloud formation is influenced by solar activity. According to the Danish t...
Wet weather on Titan
Planetary physicists hope to use atmospheric data from Titan to provide clues to the behaviour of our own atmosphere. The difficulty with studying Earth’s atmosphere is that it is affected by ex...
Unmanned plane tries transatlantic record
Each plane has a 3m wingspan and weighs 13.1 kg. During normal operations the craft will measure temperature, humidity and pressure over the ocean. At a cost of just $25000 each, the planes could dram...
Global warming confirmed from space
Previously satellite measurements have suggested that the atmosphere was cooling at 0.05 Kelvin per decade, while ground-based instruments showed an increase of 0.13 Kelvin per decade. However, as pol...
Antarctic glaciers feel the heat
Rignot used radar data taken between 1992 and 1996 by two European satellites, ERS-1 and ERS-2, to generate interference patterns that are sensitive to small vertical movements. These patterns provide...
Pollution: cleaner coronas
Coronas form when a stream of gas passes between two electrodes maintained at different voltages. The potential difference causes energetic electrons to collide with the gas, producing a glowing plasm...
EU clashes with US over atmosphere tests
HAARP is a facility to study upper atmospheric and solar terrestrial physics. The programme is paid for by the US Air Force and Navy and has already cost hundreds of million dollars. Opponents of the ...
Climate change: the challenges
On 10 December 1997, after a session lasting two days and nights virtually without a break, politicians at the climate summit in Kyoto, Japan, agreed a protocol limiting the emissions of greenhouse ga...
