Broken glass, dust, and climate change - Jasper Kok (NCAR)

Related news: http://www2.ucar.edu/news/3510/broken-glass-yields-clues-climate-change

Clues to future climate may be found in the way that an ordinary drinking glass shatters. NCAR scientist Jasper Kok has found that microscopic particles of dust, emitted into the atmosphere when dirt breaks apart, follow similar fragment patterns to broken glass and other brittle objects. His research suggests there are several times more dust particles in the atmosphere than previously thought, since shattered dirt appears to produce an unexpectedly high number of large dust fragments.

The finding has implications for understanding future climate change because dust plays a significant role in controlling the amount of solar energy in the atmosphere. Depending on their size and other characteristics, some dust particles reflect solar energy and cool the planet, while others trap energy as heat.

Kok's research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science: http://www.pnas.org

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• dust
• physics
• research
• global warming
• climate change
• scale invariance
• self-similarity
• radiative balance
• Jasper Kok
• NCAR
• UCAR