{"72997":{"#nid":"72997","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tibet Pathway for Chemicals To Reach Stratosphere","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers from Georgia Tech and NASA have found that thunderstorms over Tibet provide a main pathway for water vapor and chemicals to travel from the lower atmosphere, where human activity directly affects atmospheric composition, into the stratosphere, where the protective ozone layer resides.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ELearning how water vapor reaches the stratosphere can help improve climate prediction models. Similarly, understanding the pathways that ozone-depleting chemicals can take to reach the stratosphere is essential for understanding future threats to the ozone layer, which shields Earth from the sun\u0027s harmful ultraviolet rays. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EResearchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta; NASA\u0027s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, performed their analysis using data from the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on NASA\u0027s Aura spacecraft, combined with data from NASA\u0027s Aqua and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missions. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team collected more than 1,000 measurements of high concentrations of water vapor in the stratosphere over the Tibetan Plateau and the Asian monsoon region. The measurements were collected during August 2004 and August 2005, during the height of monsoon season. Through the use of wind data and NASA atmospheric models, they found the water vapor originated over Tibet, just north of the Himalayan mountain range.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team also found that even though more thunderstorms occurred over India, the storms over Tibet transported nearly three times more water vapor into the lower stratosphere than the more frequent thunderstorms that occur over India.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This study shows that thunderstorms over Tibet are mainly responsible for the large amount of water vapor entering the stratosphere,\u0022 said Dr. Rong Fu, associate professor in Georgia Tech\u0027s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, who led the study. \u0022The rainfall may not be as frequent over Tibet as over the Indian monsoon area, but because Tibet is at a much higher elevation than India, the storms over Tibet are strong and penetrate very high, and send water vapor right into the stratosphere.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe study also found that the same pathway is responsible for transporting carbon monoxide, an indicator of air pollution, into the upper atmosphere. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022There\u0027s almost no carbon monoxide production in Tibet, so it\u0027s widely believed that carbon monoxide is transported to the tropopause over Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent,\u0022 Fu said. The tropopause divides the lower atmosphere from the stratosphere, and is located at an altitude of about 18 kilometers (11 miles) above Earth over the tropics and Tibet.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EFu added, \u0022Our study finds thunderstorms over Tibet transport as much carbon monoxide to the lower stratosphere as do those over India. When long-lived pollutants are transported out of the lower atmosphere, they can move rapidly. Pollutants from Asia, for example, can wind up on the other side of the world.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EAura, Aqua and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission are part of the NASA-centered international Earth Observing System, and are managed by NASA\u0027s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.  Aura\u0027s Microwave Limb Sounder was built by JPL. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EJPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology.\n\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"In research that could improve climate prediction models, scientists at Georgia Tech and NASA have found that thunderstorms over Tibet provide a main pathway for water vapor and chemicals to travel into the stratosphere, home of the protective ozone layer.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"GT and NASA find path of ozone-depleting chemicals"}],"uid":"27310","created_gmt":"2006-05-09 00:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:00:55","author":"David Terraso","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2006-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2006-05-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"72998":{"id":"72998","type":"image","title":"Satellites","body":null,"created":"1449177971","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:26:11","changed":"1475894668","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:44:28"}},"media_ids":["72998"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/aura.gsfc.nasa.gov\/","title":"Aura"},{"url":"http:\/\/mls.jpl.nasa.gov\/","title":"Microwave Limb Sounder"},{"url":"http:\/\/climate.eas.gatech.edu\/fu\/fu.htm","title":"Rong Fu\\\u0027s Research Group"},{"url":"http:\/\/aqua.nasa.gov\/","title":"Aqua"},{"url":"http:\/\/trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov\/","title":"Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGeorgia Tech Media Relations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ELaura Diamond\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:laura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Elaura.diamond@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-894-6016\u003Cbr \/\u003EJason Maderer\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:maderer@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Emaderer@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E404-660-2926\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["david.terraso@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}