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The Cloudmakers:Biological activity in the oceans might make the difference between clear skies and cloudy, Scripps researchers say.By Robert Monroe Your beach vacation has officially begun when the first grains of sand grind between your bare toes and you breathe in that first rush of zesty salt air blown in from the ocean surface. That mix filling your lungs is a more complicated brew than mere air and sodium chloride particles, as a team of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego researchers is discovering. The diverse team is beginning to understand a quality of the ocean that was scarcely measurable before now thanks to their unusual collaboration and the availability of cutting-edge technology. Using seed money awarded by UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox to encourage interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers across campus, the team is identifying and quantifying the kinds of particles besides salt crystals that get launched into the atmosphere via bubbling action at the ocean's turbulent surface. The ocean is known to be a source of atmospheric particles called aerosols. In ways now beginning to be understood, however, the ocean also transports organic material such as proteins and carbohydrates and actual marine microbes. Winds blow these bits of matter into the atmosphere after breaking the surface as bubbles pop. The nature of the bubbles themselves seems to facilitate the elevator ride to the surface for certain organisms.  
The team, led by atmospheric chemistry professor Kim Prather, who holds a joint appointment in the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at Scripps and in UC San Diego's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, is especially interested in the microorganisms and how the chemical compounds they produce in the ocean influence atmospheric chemistry above the oceans. Those compounds could be key components of cloud formation over the open ocean. If Prather's group can understand that relationship, it could help improve the basic tool of climate prediction, the computer model, allowing scientists to more accurately portray marine cloud characteristics and how in turn they might be affecting conditions in an era of human-caused climate change. "We are interested in marine aerosols and what's getting ejected from the ocean. How does biological activity in the ocean affect cloud formation?" Prather said. "Can we get a handle on that because if we can, that's 73 percent of the surface of the Earth we can now understand." |
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Feeling the Heat: The Climate ChallengeGet the facts on the world's hottest topic How will global warming impact your life? Discover the answers through interactive activities for all ages at Birch Aquarium at Scripps's newest exhibit opening Saturday, May 19, 2007. 
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