Measurements of atmospheric temperature profiles in the troposphere and lower stratosphere were made over Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS) (8.5 N, 76.9 E) during a partial solar eclipse (22 July 2009) and an annular solar eclipse (15 January 2010). It was observed that during the partial solar eclipse, the temperature decreased by 2–3 C in the vicinity of the tropopause and in...

The folding mechanism of integral membrane proteins has eluded detailed study, largely as a result of the inherent difficulties in folding these proteins in vitro. The seven-transmembrane helical protein bacteriorhodopsin has, however, allowed major advances to be made, not just on the folding of this particular protein, but also on the factors governing folding of transmembrane alpha-helical p...

Temperatures Vary Vertically The global temperature profile of the Earth’s atmosphere reflects a balance between the radiative, convective and dynamical heating/cooling of the surface-atmosphere system. Radiation from the Sun is the source of energy for the Earth’s climate, with most of it absorbed at the surface. Combined with the physical properties of the atmosphere and dynamical processes, ...

The impacts of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on the tropical total column ozone, the tropical tropopause pressure, and the 3.5-yr ozone signal in the midlatitude total column ozone were examined using the Goddard Earth Observing System Chemistry–Climate Model (GEOS CCM). Observed monthly mean sea surface temperature and sea ice between 1951 and 2004 were used as boundary conditions for th...

Many studies have shown that stratospheric anomalies can influence tropospheric circulation and convection (e.g. Gray et al. 1992; Ho et al. 2009; Hu et al. 2012; Garfinkel and Hartmann 2011; Huang et al. 2012), and much attention has been paid to the dominant mode of interannual variability of the equatorial stratosphere, i.e., quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) (Yasunari 1989; Baldwin et al. 20...

Three emissions inventories have been used with a fully Lagrangian trajectory model to calculate the stratospheric accumulation of water vapour emissions from aircraft, and the resulting radiative forcing. The annual and global-mean radiative forcing due to present-day aviation water vapour emissions has been found to be 0.9 [0.3 to 1.4] mW m−2. This is around a factor of three smaller than the...