Page 46

ra2011

Environmental watch Radioactive pollution off Fukushima, ozone depletion over the North Pole, Europe- wide monitoring of greenhouse gases: with the help of satellite observations and models, researchers are keeping a close watch on environmental threats. Boreal forests emit terpenoid compounds, whose oxidation generates large quantities of acid. Boreal and tropical forests fall victim The MetOp satellite launched at the end of 2006. to acid rain The IASI instrument is shown by an arrow. A French-Belgian team has revealed the existence of an important source of formic acid above boreal and tropical forests. The results were obtained using infrared data from France’s IASI instrument on board the MetOp meteorological satellite. In the polluted regions of our planet, acid rain is caused by nitric and sulfuric acids. A little known fact, however, is that formic acid—the simplest of the organic acids—makes a significant contribution to the acidity of rain in areas where there is little European network to monitor or no industry. greenhouse gases Nature Geoscience December 2011 In the spring of 2011, four atmospheric observatories in Europe launched a measuring campaign aimed at demonstrating the feasibility of a Europe-wide monitoring network for greenhouse gas sources and sinks. The future ICOS (Integrated Carbon Observation System) atmospheric network will be one of the large-scale research infrastructures dedicated to the observation of carbon exchanges between the atmosphere and the land and ocean surface. It will bring together more than 40 research laboratories in some 20 countries. 44 A year at CNRS 2011


ra2011
To see the actual publication please follow the link above