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New analysis has found increasing emissions of several ozone-depleting chemicals despite their production being banned for most uses under the Montreal Protocol—and a loophole in the rules is likely responsible. According to the researchers, emissions from these CFCs currently do not significantly threaten ozone recovery.
A study led by Norwegian climate center CICERO has found that the global warming effect of leaked hydrogen is almost 12 times stronger than that of CO 2. Unlike exhaust from burning coal and gas that contains CO 2 , burning hydrogen emits only water vapor and oxygen. Sand et al. Hydrogen interacts with various biogeochemical processes.
Levels of two major air pollutants have been reduced significantly since lockdowns began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a secondary pollutant—ground-level ozone—has increased in China, according to new research. In addition to nitrogen dioxide, one of the new studies finds PM 2.5 Bauwens et al.
Cities restricted the number of cars on the road, coal-fired power plants reduced emissions or were shuttered and replaced with natural gas. pollution is falling, harmful ground-level ozone pollution is on the rise, especially in large cities. Their study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
A study by researchers at the University of Texas found that in general, use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) can lead to an increase in ozone during nighttime hours (due to decreased scavenging from both vehicles and EGU stacks) and a decrease in ozone during daytime hours.
The study will appear next month in the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change Letters. The study will appear next month in the peer-reviewed journal Climatic Change Letters. Relying more on natural gas would reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, but it would do little to help solve the climate problem. —Tom Wigley.
They found that the increase in ozone burden due to the spatial distribution change slightly exceeds the combined influences of the increased emission magnitude and global methane. Based on their findings, they suggested that emission increases in Southeast, East and South Asia may be most important for the ozone change.
Springtime ozone distributions for 1984, 1995–2008 in the mid-troposphere (3.0–8.0 Springtime ozone levels above western North America are rising primarily due to air flowing eastward from the Pacific Ocean, a trend that is largest when the air originates in Asia. The US EPA recently proposed new tougher ground-level ozone standards.
Ozone levels across much of North America and Europe dropped significantly between 2000 and 2014. People living in parts of southern Europe, South Korea and southern Japan and China also experienced more than 15 days a year of ozone levels above 70 ppb. Trends in daily maximum ozone levels (known as 4MDA8) at urban and non-urban sites.
Widespread implementation is achievable with existing technology but would require significant strategic investment and institutional arrangements, the study found. Black carbon and tropospheric ozone are harmful air pollutants that also contribute to climate change.
The first peer-reviewed study to directly quantify how emissions from oil and natural gas (O&NG) activities influence summertime tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) pollution in the Colorado Front Range confirms that chemical vapors from oil and gas activities are a significant contributor to the region’s chronic ozone problem.
Drought conditions can have complicated effects on ozone air quality, so to better understand the process, researchers have analyzed data from two ozone-polluted cities before, during and after the California drought. However, plants also decrease air ozone levels by taking the gas up through pores in their leaves.
Some of the substitutes for ozone-damaging chemicals that being phased out worldwide under international agreements are themselves potent greenhouse gases and contribute to warming. Burkholder (2015) “An atmospheric photochemical source of the persistent greenhouse gas CF4” Geophysical Research Letters doi: 10.1002/2015GL066193.
Through a recent modeling experiment, a team of NASA-funded researchers have found that future concentrations of carbon dioxide and ozone in the atmosphere and of nitrogen in the soil are likely to have an important but overlooked effect on the cycling of water from sky to land to waterways. Cronin, J. Melillo, D. Kicklighter, C.
Renault recently made public the findings of an internal study, published first in October 2011, detailing and comparing the lifecycle assessments (LCAs) of the battery-electric and two internal combustion engined versions (gasoline and diesel) of the Renault Fluence. Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (kg Ethene equivalent).
This research, published in the journal Separation and Purification Technology , shows that ozone can be used to remove not only SO x but also NO x from fossil fuel combustion exhaust streams. In our previous study, we found that MnO 2 can absorb not only SO 2 but also NO 2 simultaneously. Osaka et al. Osaka et al.
A University of Utah engineer has developed an inexpensive new method to remove oil sheen by repeatedly pressurizing and depressurizing ozonegas, creating microscopic bubbles that attack the oil so it can be removed by sand filters. The ozone in the bubble attacks certain pollutants because it is a strong oxidant.
Emissions of one of the chemicals most responsible for the Antarctic ozone hole are on the rise, despite an international treaty that required an end to its production in 2010, a new study by researchers at NOAA and their colleagues shows. —NOAA scientist Stephen Montzka, lead author of the paper.
The global market for rocket launches may require more stringent regulation in order to prevent significant damage to Earth’s stratospheric ozone layer in the decades to come, according to a new study by researchers in California and Colorado. Darin Toohey.
Currently, anthropogenic N 2 O emissions represent the largest contribution to ozone depletion. The study, published online 27 August in the journal Science , for the first time evaluated nitrous oxide emissions from human activities in terms of their potential impact on Earth’s ozone layer. Source: Ravishankara et al.
About 4 million children worldwide develop asthma each year because of inhaling nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) air pollution, according to an open-access study published in The Lancet Planetary Health by researchers at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH). —Susan Anenberg.
Denver represents an interesting case study for exploring potential PHEV impacts because it violates the federal air quality standard for ozone and because several large EGUs [electricity generating units] are located in or near the urbanized area. Ozone concentration increases were modeled for small areas near central Denver.
The 100-year global warming potentials (GWPs) for methane, CO, and NO x (per Tg N) as given in the AR4 and in this study when including no aerosol response; the direct radiative effect of aerosol responses; and the direct+indirect radiative effects of aerosol responses. Source: Shindell at al. Click to enlarge. Shindell et al.
eutrophication; ET = ecological toxicity; FEC = fossil energy consumption; WU = water use; LO = land occupation; “The rest” includes acidification; smog formation; ozone layer depletion; and human health effects. For gasoline, the study reflects the US context in which crude oil is to a large extent imported and refined domestically.
A new study now finds that asphalt is a significant source of air pollutants in urban areas, especially on hot and sunny days. But recent studies show that as those efforts succeeded, numerous non-combustion-related sources have become important contributors of organic compounds. —Peeyush Khare, lead author of the study.
coal, oil, natural gas, and biomass). Most studies that have examined the impact of EVs report only changes in the total emissions associated with their adoption, but do not consider their spatial or temporal variation. Across scenarios, we found the more cars that transitioned to electric power, the better for summertime ozone levels.
The two combine in the atmosphere to make either nitric acid or peroxynitrous acid; the so-called branching ratio of these two chemicals is important in models of ozone production. This means less of the hydroxyl radical and nitrogen dioxide go away, leading to proportionately more ozone, mostly in polluted areas, Okumura said.
CSIRO scientists have developed a new way to account for ozone in computer simulations of the climate. This latest modeling shows that the oceans take much less ozone out of the atmosphere than previously thought. Ozone (O 3 ) is formed by reactions of chemicals such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds—i.e.,
Global levels of the hydrocarbons ethane and propane in the atmosphere have been underestimated by more than 50%, according to a new study by a team of scientists from Europe and the US. The study used data collected from 20 observatories world-wide. —Professor Ally Lewis, a co-author of the study.
A new study by researchers at MIT has found that factoring the non-CO 2 combustion emissions and effects into the lifecycle of a Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene (SPK) aviation fuel can lead to a decrease in the relative environmental merit of the SPK fuel compared to conventional jet fuel. Aviation climate change impacts pathway.
Five technology paths for very-low-NO x and GHG emissions from heavy-duty natural gas engines. The “Pathways to Near-Zero-Emission Natural Gas Heavy Duty Vehicles” report, authored by GNA on behalf of Southern California Gas Co. Click to enlarge. Click to enlarge. Background. Click to enlarge.
Ozone pollution near Earth’s surface is one of the main ingredients of summertime smog. It is also not directly measurable from space due to the abundance of ozone higher in the atmosphere, which obscures measurements of surface ozone. —Jin et al.
A study led by researchers at UC Berkeley has found that diesel exhaust forms about seven times more secondary organic aerosols (SOA) than gasoline exhaust for the same mass of unburned fuel emissions and, given emission factors, can be expected to form 15 times more SOA than gasoline per liter of fuel burned. Click to enlarge.
Between 2002 and 2010 alone, the concentration of VOCs dropped by half, according to a new study by NOAA scientists and colleagues, published in the AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research. —lead author Carsten Warneke, Ph.D., Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Deterioration of the ozone layer [kg CFC-11-eq.]. A recent PSI study led by environmental scientist Christian Bauer found that a battery electric car is already the most environmentally friendly option in Switzerland and many other countries, even when the manufacture of the battery is figured in. —Romain Sacchi. in review).
Their study is published in Geophysical Research Letters. Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)—commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners—play a role in creating a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. Despite this, synthetic greenhouse gases (SGHGs) beyond the CFCs have received relatively little attention up to now.
A new study quantifying emissions from a fleet of gasoline direct injection (GDI) engines and port fuel injection (PFI) engines finds that the measured decrease in CO 2 emissions from GDIs is much greater than the potential climate forcing associated with higher black carbon emissions from GDI engines. —Saliba et al. of the data.
Although viewed as a potential target in the global effort to reduce climate change, atmospheric black carbon particles absorb significantly less sunlight than scientists have predicted, according to a new study by an international team of researchers, published in the journal Science.
After a critical review of the literature on the air impacts of increased natural gas acquisition, processing, and use, a team of US researchers has determined that that actual measurement data on various individual segments of the natural gas life cycle are sparse or critically lacking. well production end-of-life.
The Bakken Formation, a shale oil and gas field in North Dakota and Montana, is emitting roughly 2% (about 250,000 tons per year) of the globe’s ethane, according to new study led by researchers at the University of Michigan. Between 2005 and 2014, the Bakken’s oil production jumped by a factor of 3,500, and its gas production by 180.
Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. It is produced via a microbial process called denitrification, which converts nitrogen to nitrous oxide and an inert gas called dinitrogen.
The human health benefits associated with improvements in air quality related to the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions improvements can offset 26–1,050% of the cost of US carbon policies, depending upon the type of policy, according to a new study by a team from MIT. —Gregory Nemet. Resources.
A research team from Ford Motor Company and the University of Copenhagen has performed a systematic study of the vapor pressures of single and dual-blends of different alcohols with potential to be used as biofuels, including methanol; ethanol; 1- and 2-propanol; and 1-, 2-, i -, and t -butanol. Gasoline standards in the US and globally.
In addition to studying the important issues at the nexus of the air quality and climate change problems, the goal of CalNex 2010 is also to provide scientific information regarding the trade-offs faced by decision makers when addressing these two inter-related issues. 2010 CalNex Science and Implementation Plan.
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