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POPS Jet traffic affecting climate
"I remember walking to and from my office and thinking how incredibly clear the skies were," recalls Carleton. He mentioned this to a colleague and former Ph.D. student of his, David Travis of the University of Wisconsin, who had noticed the same thing. "Then we started thinking that we should look at the temperature conditions" during those days in September and compare them to years past, Carleton says. Looking at daytime highs and nighttime lows, Carleton and Travis found the average daily temperature range across the no-fly period to be almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit larger than when jets do fly. This implies, Carleton explains, that contrails lower daytime maximum temperatures and increase nighttime low temperatures—probably in the same way that cirrus clouds do, by blocking some solar radiation from reaching earth's surface during the day, and insulating against heat loss at night. Since finding this association, Carleton has used contrails as a sort of metr
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POPS Engineer's work may reduce jet travel's role in global warming Backed by government and industry grants, Dryer is leading two new research efforts to advance these technologies. The first, a major project funded by the U.S. Air Force, is focused on developing computational and kinetic models that accurately simulate the burning of jet fuel, a complex and poorly characterized mix of chemicals.
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POPSContrails or Chemtrails? Looks just like my sky on the west coast. Contrails (Chemtrails?) are the only cloud I see here now - so we really need them. No cloud - no life. And how is your sky?
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POPSGaia scientist says pipe dream may fix climate Pipes to mix deep and surface water. While they focus on the generation of algal bloom, there would also be dramatic changes in temperature, currents and ecosystems of which the algae are a part. The effects may be less of a problem than the one being solved, but by humanity's history of bugged patches, a few more of the ramifications should be considered. Richard Branson, has offered to make a prototype which may give more detail into possible benefits and dangers.
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