Ice melting in the Arctic favored by pollution in Southeast Asia

Some of the fine particles in suspension produced by human activity, particularly in Southeast Asia, are believed to contribute to the melting of ice in the Arctic. Dorothy Koch, Columbia University, and James Hansen, Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), collected satellite imagery data and attempted, using the model
atmospheric circulation climate developed by the GISS (the General Circulation Model), to determine the origin of the carbon particles present above the North Pole.

Their work, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, shows a correlation between the melting, in time and in space, of Arctic glaciers and the amounts of "soot" produced by humans during the 20th century. . Indeed, the soot particles, when they are deposited on the ice, promote the absorption of light, accelerating the thaw and their presence in the northern sky alters the meteorology by heating the air. The phenomenon is therefore not only the consequence of global warming.

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Regarding the origin of pollution in the Arctic, one third would come from carbon emissions in Southeast Asia, another third from forest fires and other combustions in nature and the rest from industrial fumes and Western automobile pollution. And while pollution from industrialized countries circulates at fairly low atmospheric currents, that from Asia follows higher ascending paths, to the troposphere.

LAT 24 / 03 / 05 (Airbone soot adds to artic melting, study finds)
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/arctic_soot.html

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