It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Indirect Aerosol Forcing
Crowley (1) used estimates of radiative forcing, together with an energy balance model, to estimate the temperature response to variations in volcanic emissions, solar irradiance, increases in greenhouse gases, and aerosol forcing. He did not account for the indirect effects of aerosols, because evaluations by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) indicated that confidence in estimates of this forcing was very low [p. 272 of (1)]. We believe, however, that such an omission could lead to large systematic errors
An aerosol can be defined as a dispersion of solid and liquid particles suspended in gas
...
When sulfate (SO4-2) and nitrate (NO3-) containing aerosols are incorporated into cloud droplets, they lead to acidic deposition, often hundreds of miles away from the source of the aerosols or precursor gases. Although aerosols are produced by myriad natural processes, human activities are responsible for generating much of the aerosol load in today's atmosphere.
...
Insoluble aerosols include metal oxides, silicates, and clay minerals (all 3 derived from soil dust or volcanoes).
Radiative forcing from contrails from the proposed HSCT fleet may therefore be neglected in future scenarios of radiative forcing
Evidence suggests that differences in airspace charging rates are significantly influencing airline routes and flight plans through European airspace. The resulting changes in routings can extend flight distances by up to 20% compared to shortest routes.
The effects of aerosol particles from aircraft emissions on clouds are more complicated because nucleation and subsequent growth of ice crystals that make up cirrus clouds are more complex and less studied than for water clouds.
Nitrates blaze a trail
On a clear day, the condensation trails that aircrafts leave in their wake fuel many a holiday dream. To an international team of climate researchers, however, they may well bring to mind its discovery of a new class of ice particles which contain HNO3 and which could dramatically alter climate models.
They suggest that HNO3 combines with surface water molecules to form nitric acid trihydrate, which interferes with the uptake of molecules on the ice surface, preventing the ice-vapour system from reaching equilibrium.
Jet engines inject water vapor, soot, sulfates, and nitrates into the upper troposphere
and lower stratosphere.
The dictionary defines nitrate (noun) as a radical or ion with the chemical formula NO3- or a compound containing the nitrate ion as in salts or nitric acid (HNO3).
Acid-Rain and Atmospheric Dry Deposition of NITROGEN: While most of the sources of nitrogen pollution result in contamination of surface and ground waters, air-borne nitrogen pollution leads to acid rain in the mid-west and east coast regions of US where rain falls on a regular basis.
When Nitrate is taken in by eating food and drinking water, Nitrate is converted in the gut to nitrite, which then combines with hemoglobin to form methemoglobin, thus decreasing the ability of the blood to carry oxygen. Infants are more susceptible to nitrate toxicity than older children or adults. Fatalities are rare, but sub-acute methemoglobinemia can be asymptotic while affecting development, making the condition particularly insidious. Chronic consumption of high levels of nitrate may also cause other health problems, for example some cancers and teratogenic effects; data are inconclusive, but cause for concern
December 27, 2007--Bill would give state more authority over cloud seeding efforts (Denver Post)
Draft legislation would give Wyoming more oversight of efforts to modify the weather to produce more rain and snowfall. Such efforts include cloud seeding, which involves pumping silver nitrate into clouds to get them to produce precipitation.
Safety
Despite being used in low concentrations to prevent gonorrhea, silver nitrate is toxic and corrosive, as with all silver salts. Brief exposure to the chemical will not produce immediate or even any side effects other than the purple, brown or black skin stains, but with more exposure, side effects will become more noticeable, including burns. Long-term exposure may cause eye damage. Short contact can lead to deposition of black silver stains on the skin. Besides being very destructive of mucous membranes, it is skin and eye irritant.
Although silver nitrate is currently not regulated in water sources by the Environmental Protection Agency, when between 1-5 g of silver have accumulated in the body, a condition called argyria can develop. Argyria is a permanent cosmetic condition in which the skin and internal organs turn a blue-gray color. The United States Environmental Protection Agency had a maximum contaminant limit for silver in water until 1990, but upon determination that argyria did not impact the function of organs affected, removed the regulation. Argyria is more often associated with the consumption of colloidal silver solutions than with silver nitrate, especially at the extremely low concentrations present for the disinfection of water. However, it is still important to consider before ingesting any sort of silver-ion solution.
Originally posted by weedwhacker
reply to post by kingswillquiver
Again, reading the sourced material will show the fallacy of this thread's OP.
What are the most commonly used seeding materials?
The second major category is focused on cloud systems where the warm (coalescence) process predominates. In those environments, hygroscopic (water attracting) materials such as salt, urea and ammonium nitrate can be utilized. Of the hygroscopic materials, the most commonly used are salts.
Nitrogen oxides form when fuel burns at high temperatures, such as in motor vehicle engines. Mobile sources are responsible for more than half of all nitrogen oxide emissions in the United States. Both on-road and nonroad mobile sources are major nitrogen oxide polluters.
...it's the FACT that the corridors were opened up, causing commercial airlines to re-reroute.
When is the last time you saw a car leave a persistant contrail, forming into clouds covering the entire sky?
Aerosol Forcing means to introduce an aerosol into the atmosphere, that is not there naturally.
Aerosols forcing
The "pause" in warming from the 1940s to 1960's is generally attributed to aerosol forcing, which acts to cool the climate. More recently, this forcing has (relatively) declined, which may have enhanced warming, though the effect is regionally varying. See global dimming. Another example of this is in Ruckstuhl's paper who found a 60% reduction in aerosol concentrations over Europe causing solar brightening.
“ [...] the direct aerosol effect had an approximately five times larger impact on climate forcing than the indirect aerosol and other cloud effects. The overall aerosol and cloud induced surface climate forcing is ~+1 W m−2 dec−1 and has most probably strongly contributed to the recent rapid warming in Europe."