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Transcontinental pollution: This graphic shows particulate pollution in the atmosphere, particularly being transported from East Asia across the North Pacific in May 2003, as observed by the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra satellite. Particulate pollution is represented by optical thickness, in which heavy aerosol concentrations appear in shades of brown, with darker shades representing greater concentrations.
NASA
The instrument also gets "spatial and time detail that one would never get from ground-based measurements, and it captures the entire pollution plumes rather than just having a few observing stations looking up," says Prinn.
NASA researchers drew two virtual lines at 20 degrees north to 60 degrees north, and they measured the optical effect of the particles as they crossed those lines, says Yu. Using software that he made, the researchers culled this data and mapped it to see globally where the pollution is located.
The researchers found that 18 teragrams--almost 40 billion pounds--of pollution is exported from Asia, and that 4.5 teragrams--10 billion pounds, or about 25 percent--reaches North America annually, says Mian Chin, an atmospheric scientist at NASA and a coauthor of the study. But the instrument measures the total atmosphere column and does not have the vertical structure, so it is unknown how many of the pollutants are at surface level, and how many are aloft in the atmosphere, says Chin.
Despite that uncertainty, the scientists say that it is the higher-altitude pollution that is probably most worrisome. "We think the pollution being imported to North America will impact the weather and climate; we don't expect any big impact on the air quality because particles from East Asia are exported at high altitude," says Yu.
"It is very difficult to lower pollution levels of man-made pollutants to extremely low levels because pollutants come in the air from other countries that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for example, cannot control," says Prinn. Agrees Honrath: "You have to consider the future industrial growth of Asia if you develop long-range plans for meeting air-quality goals in the United States."
A new satellite could produce color images of objects half the size of those visible to its predecessors.
A leader in documenting man-made climate change, MIT's Ronald Prinn has also made it his business to inform world leaders--and the public--about the risks of ignoring it.
As the global picture grows grimmer, states and cities are searching for the fine-scale predictions they need to prepare for emergencies--and to keep the faucets running.
More importantly what effect are all these polution particles having on our weather/climate ? This is cloud seeding on an unprecedented scale .
We need a "pollution tax", and more...
All those cheap goods being imported from Asia are in fact the products of unprecedented "corner cutting" practiced by those countries.
They cut costs exactly on the issues on which Western democracies have worked for generations to turn wild capitalism into a humane, sustainable capitalism. We wanted clean rivers, lakes etc. and enacted environmental controls. They have none of that. Their rivers are sewage. We wanted clean air, and enacted preventive measures for it. Again they have none of that. Their air is the most polluted on earth. We wanted high living standards, so we brought in humane working hours and conditions, health care...They work as slaves for 12 hours a day in unsafe, unhealthy conditions for meager wages.
Obviously our civilized requirements add up as business costs (=burden), while their corner cutting adds up as "competitive advantage". Yet every time you buy a cheap Asian product and you think you "got a deal", you're in fact shooting yourself in the foot. It gives companies the incentive to outsource even more jobs (maybe yours too), and to neglect all the values on which Western society is based.
Asia?!?! What about accross our Southern Border... that doesn't have to travel over an ocean...
The 'ethical blame game' in transboundary pollution is not as simple as we would like it to be. The fact is, the US transfers technology to, and is heavily invested in most growing economies around the world. For that reason it must accept moral responsibility for the trans-national pollution that its investments cause.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
This document is part of the “How-To Guide for Most Common Measurements” centralized resource portal. This tutorial provides a detailed guide for measurement and device considerations to take temperature measurements using thermocouples. Get an introduction to thermocouples, which are inexpensive sensing devices widely used with PC-based data acquisition systems. Also review some specific thermocouple examples and learn how thermocouples work and ways to integrate them into a data acquisition measurement system.
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boustrephon
50 Comments
Exported Pollution
We should probably not forget that some of that pollution exists to make the cheap goods that we buy (it would be interesting if someone could estimate how much) and that people local to the polluting plants actually suffer more from it.
Yes... we really do need global solutions.
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Deragor
1 Comment
Re: Exported Pollution
Instant Karma
American exports to China are quietly rising at an even more rapid pace. Would it surprise you to learn that a lot of those exports are ... junk?
http://www.slate.com/id/2173594/
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