Global warming from the increase in greenhouse gases has become a major scientific and political issue during the past decade. That infrared radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases and particles in a planetary atmosphere and that the atmospheric CO2 level has increased by some 25 percent since 1850 because of fossil fuel combustion and land use (largely deforestation) are not controversial; le...

Introduction: This work aims to set up a framework for assimilation of trace gas species into a Martian Global Circulation Model (MGCM). The launch of the ISRO Mars Orbiter and NASA Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN mission will add to our knowledge of trace gases and atmospheric chemistry. In addition, the Exomars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) launches in 2016 and will obtain observations of tr...

Low background miniaturized proportional counters as developed for the GALLEX solar neutrino experiment can be applied to the detection of radioactive noble gas nuclides at very low activities. We have developed an apparatus that allows the activity of trace amounts of isotopes of the four noble gases Ar, Kr, Xe and Rn to be measured. The technique includes contamination-free chromatographic pu...

Biomass burning has important impacts on atmospheric chemistry and climate. Fires in tropical forests and savannas release large quantities of trace gases and particulate matter. Combustion of biofuels for cooking and heating constitutes a less spectacular but similarly widespread biomass burning activity. To provide the groundwork for a quantification of this source, we determined in rural Zim...

Welding is an important process used in the iron based industries. About two percent of the working population is engaged in some type of welding. The procedure of welding is simple but its health implications are complex. Welding generates enormous amounts of gases and metal fumes. Depending on the substrate and welding type, the composition of resultant gases and fumes changes. Therefore, wel...

Radioactive noble-gas isotopes, Kr (half-life t1/2=10.8 y), Ar (t1/2=269 y), and Kr (t1/2=229,000 y), are ideal tracers and can be detected by atom trap trace analysis (ATTA), a laser-based technique, from environmental samples like air and groundwater. Prior to ATTA measurements, it is necessary to efficiently extract krypton and argon gases from samples. Using a combination of cryogenic disti...

We have studied the effect of gaseous pollutants on fog droplet growth in heavily polluted air using a model that describes time-dependent sulfate production in the liquid phase and thermodynamical equilibrium between the droplets and the gas phase. Our research indicates that the oxidation of SO2 to sulfate has a significant effect on fog droplet growth especially when hygroscopic trace gases,...

[1] Monthly and seasonal stratospheric zonal-mean temperature trends arising from recent changes in stratospheric ozone and well-mixed greenhouse gases (WMGGs) are simulated using a general circulation model and compared with observed (1979–2000) trends. The combined effect of these gases yields statistically significant cooling trends over the entire globally averaged stratosphere in all month...

■ Abstract The anthropogenic production of greenhouse gases and their consequent effects on global climate have garnered international attention for years. A remaining challenge facing scientists is to unambiguously quantify both sources and sinks of targeted gases. Microbiological metabolism accounts for the largest source of nitrous oxide (N2O), mostly due to global conversion of land for agr...