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Wednesday, May 3, 2000 INDIAN OCEAN POLLUTION SUBSTANTIALLY CUTS SUNLIGHT REACHING EARTH'S SURFACE MEDIA ADVISORY Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego EMBARGOED BY NATURE: 11 A.M. U.S. PST, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2000 Scripps Contacts: Mario Aguilera or Cindy Clark: (858) 534-3624 E-mail: siocomm@sio.ucsd.edu Particles of soot produced in southern Asia are significantly reducing sunlight reaching Earth's surface, and the effect may have important consequences for the region's climate. That is an observation drawn from the international Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX) and published in the May 4 edition of the journal Nature. V. Ramanathan and S.K. Satheesh of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate (C4) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, used data from satellite measurements and five surface instruments to pinpoint a three-fold decrease in solar radiation reaching the earth's surface as compared with the top of the atmosphere. The difference, the authors say, is largely due to man-made soot aerosol particles that absorb sunlight in the atmosphere. "The atmospheric heating over the northern Indian Ocean is surprisingly large compared to other oceanic regions and is comparable in magnitude with that observed over the coastal regions of the Atlantic Ocean," said Ramanathan. The authors propose that the disruption caused by the soot aerosols may have several consequences for the region's climate, including slowing down the natural hydrological cycle and breaking up cloud cover. Although the researchers documented aerosol particles such as sulfate, nitrate, organics, and ash, the sunlight absorption was largely due to combustion-derived soot. INDOEX is a cooperative program involving scientists from the United States, Europe, India, and the Maldives. The American component of INDOEX was funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NASA. # # # Note to broadcast and cable producers: University of California, San Diego provides an on-campus satellite uplink facility for live or pre-recorded television interviews. Please phone or e-mail the media contact listed above to arrange an interview. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration. |
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