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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (21448)	5/9/1998 2:14:00 PM
From: LoLoLoLita	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Christine, I'll give it a try. But this is not my area of expertise. When there are heavy particulate loads in the atmosphere (basically black soot) more of the solar radiation is absorbed before it gets to the ground. This phenomenon was given the term "nuclear winter" in the 1980s, when some scientists became very fearful that if there were a large-scale nuclear war all the dust (comprised of soil and structures) pumped up into the atmosphere would cause a dramatic cooling of the earth, and possibly result in more deaths from famine worldwide than would result from the radiation and blast effects. "Greenhouse" gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are a different matter. It's a little difficult to explain why, but what happens is that these gases absorb more heat from solar radiation after it has bounced off the surface of the earth (when it is going up) than what they absorb from it on its way down from the sun. This is exactly what happens inside a greenhouse. The heat comes in easily from sunlight, but a lot of it gets trapped inside. Heavy particulates are different in that they keep some of the solar radiation from ever reaching the ground, and some of the energy they intercept is reflected upwards, away from the surface, so it will have no heating effect at ground level. However, the air high above is warmed. Also, be aware that it's not very clearcut. Particulates in the atmosphere can have heating effects as well as cooling effects. What matters in the end is which effect dominates over the other. At the end, I want to say that an upper-atmosphere scientist might well find something wrong or missing in this explanation. But I believe that it's a good starting point to help you or others who want to do further research. David