Video featuring branch member appears in ScienCentral
April 28, 2008
A 90-second video film story produced by ScienCentral was fed to ABC television stations on April 18 and posted on ScienCentral's web site. It describes recent research by branch member Tom Bell using TRMM satellite data that suggests that storm development in the southeast U.S. is intensified when anthropogenic pollution increases. The science news clip can be viewed here. Full Story

Goddard scientists use satellite to quantify the trans-Pacific transport of pollution aerosol
April 23, 2008
In a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres titled "A satellite-based assessment of transpacific transport of pollution aerosol", scientists from the Climate & Radiation Branch and the Laboratory for Atmospheres at Goddard Space Flight Center offer the first satellite-based estimate of the amount of pollution from East Asian and European forest fires, urban exhaust, and industrial production making its way to western North America. The satellite data suggest that 18 teragrams of pollution aerosol was exported to the northwestern Pacific Ocean and 4.5 teragrams reached North America annually from East Asia and beyond. The amount of pollution arriving in North America is equivalent to about 15 percent of local emissions of the U.S. and Canada. Full Story