Summaries | Headlines

Los Angeles Most Polluted US City, According To American Lung Association Report (May 1, 2007) -- For the first time since the American Lung Association began issuing its annual air quality report card, data reveal a split picture along either side of the Mississippi River, as particle pollution ... > full story

Thirstier Trees On Horizon (April 25, 2007) -- Increased levels of ozone associated with the release of greenhouse gases are causing vegetation to use more water and may intensify the effects of global warming on ecological systems, according to ... > full story

Ethanol Vehicles Pose Significant Risk To Health, New Study Finds (April 18, 2007) -- Ethanol is widely touted as an eco-friendly, clean-burning fuel. But if every vehicle in the United States ran on fuel made primarily from ethanol instead of pure gasoline, the number of ... > full story

NOAA, NASA To Restore A Key Climate Sensor (April 16, 2007) -- NOAA and NASA announced a plan to restore a key climate sensor, designed to give climate researchers a more precise depiction of the structure of the Earth's ozone ... > full story

Solar Blast From The Past Dwarfed Modern Ozone Destruction (March 29, 2007) -- A burst of protons from the Sun in 1859 destroyed several times more ozone in Earth's atmosphere than did a 1989 solar flare that was the strongest ever monitored by satellite, a new analysis ... > full story

Is Solar UV Frying Fish? (March 24, 2007) -- Marine and freshwater organisms could be facing damage due to increasing levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, according to a United Nations (UN) commissioned ... > full story

First Ozone And Nitrogen Dioxide Measurements From The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (March 15, 2007) -- The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 launched in October 2006 and currently undergoing commissioning has delivered the first geophysical products for monitoring the Earth's ozone layer, and ... > full story

Airborne Pollutants Know No Borders (March 12, 2007) -- Mounting evidence suggests that gas and aerosol pollutants are routinely transported by winds across and between continents and can affect the air and climate of areas far from their ... > full story

In Presence Of Fragrant Cleaning Products, Air Purifiers That Emit Ozone Can Dirty The Air (February 24, 2007) -- Indoor air purifiers that produce even small quantities of ozone may actually make the air dirtier when used at the same time as household cleaning products, scientists at UC Irvine have ... > full story

Antarctic Temperatures Disagree With Climate Model Predictions (February 17, 2007) -- A new report on climate over the world's southernmost continent shows that temperatures during the late 20th century did not climb as had been predicted by many global climate models. This comes ... > full story

Pollution Knows No Borders (December 14, 2006) -- Plumes of ozone-producing pollution routinely cross political boundaries, influence local regulatory efforts and impact health and the environment, according to a team of atmospheric chemists trying ... > full story

Nitrogen Oxide Pollutants Have Declined Over The Eastern United States Since 1999 (November 28, 2006) -- Nitrogen oxides (known as NOx) emitted by fossil fuel combustion play a crucial role in producing ground level ozone, a pollutant hazardous to human health that contributes to smog over urban areas. ... > full story

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Ozone layer -- The ozone layer is the part of the Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone (O₃). "Relatively high" means a few parts per million - much higher than the ... > full article

Tropospheric ozone -- Ozone (O₃) is a key constituent of the troposphere. Photochemical and chemical reactions involving it drive many of the chemical processes that occur in the atmosphere by day and by night. ... > full article

Ozone depletion -- Ozone depletion describes the observed loss of ozone in the stratosphere over the past 50 years. It encompasses both a steady thinning of the ozone layer at mid-latitudes and its catastrophic ... > full article

Smog -- Smog is a kind of air pollution, originally named for the mixture of smoke and fog in the air. Classic smog results from large amounts of coal burning in an area and is caused by a mixture of smoke ... > full article

Refrigerant -- A refrigerant is a compound used in a heat cycle that undergoes a phase change from a gas to a liquid and back. The two main uses of refrigerants are refrigerators/freezers and air conditioners. Cf. ... > full article

Greenhouse gas -- Greenhouse gases (GHG) are gaseous components of the atmosphere that contribute to the greenhouse effect. The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36-70% of the ... > full article

Nitrogen oxide -- NOx is a generic term for the various nitrogen oxides produced during combustion. They are believed to aggravate asthmatic conditions, react with the oxygen in the air to produce ozone, which is also ... > full article

Atmospheric chemistry -- Atmospheric chemistry is a branch of atmospheric science in which the chemistry of the Earth's atmosphere and that of other planets is studied. It is a multidisciplinary field of research and draws ... > full article

Ozone -- Ozone (O₃) is an allotrope of oxygen, the molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms instead of the more stable diatomic O₂. Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent. It is present in ... > full article

Haloalkane -- The haloalkanes (also known as Halogenoalkanes) are a group of chemical compounds, consisting of alkanes, such as methane or ethane, with one or more halogens linked, such as chlorine or fluorine, ... > full article

Oxygen -- Oxygen is a chemical element in the periodic table. It has the symbol O and atomic number 8. The element is the most common on Earth, composing around 46% of the mass of Earth's crust, and is the ... > full article

Air pollution -- Air pollution is a broad term applied to any chemical, physical (particulate matter), or biological agent that modifies the natural characteristics of the atmosphere. The atmosphere is a complex, ... > full article

Earth's atmosphere -- Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity. It contains roughly 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen 0.97% argon and carbon dioxide 0.04% trace ... > full article

Greenhouse effect -- The term greenhouse effect may be used to refer to two different things in common parlance: the natural greenhouse effect, which refers to the greenhouse effect which occurs naturally on Earth, and ... > full article

James Lovelock -- James Ephraim Lovelock (born July 26, 1919), FRS, is an independent scientist, author, researcher and environmentalist who lives in Cornwall, in the south west of Great Britain. He is most famous for ... > full article

Air conditioning -- An air conditioner (AC or air-con) is an appliance or mechanism designed to extract heat from an area using a refrigeration cycle. In construction, a complete system of heating, ventilation and air ... > full article

Ultraviolet -- Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is electromagnetic radiation of a wavelength shorter than that of the visible region, but longer than that of soft X-rays. The Sun emits ultraviolet radiation in the UVA, ... > full article

Ice core -- An ice core is a core sample from the accumulation of snow and ice over many years that have recrystallized and have trapped air bubbles from previous time periods. The composition of these ice ... > full article

Ionosphere -- The ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere that is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere. It has practical ... > full article

Extinction event -- An extinction event (also extinction-level event, ELE) occurs when a large number of species die out in a relatively short period of time. Since life began on Earth, a number of major mass ... > full article