The key to understanding an extrasolar giant planet’s spectrum–and hence its detectability and evolution–lies with its atmosphere. Now that direct observations of thermal emission from extrasolar giant planets are in hand, atmosphere models can be used to constrain atmospheric composition, thermal structure, and ultimately the formation and evolution of detected planets. We review the important...

Understanding new particle formation and their subsequent growth in the troposphere has a critical impact on our ability to predict atmospheric composition and global climate change. High pre-existing particle loadings have been thought to suppress the formation of new atmospheric aerosol particles due to high condensation and coagulation sinks. Here, based on field measurements at a mountain s...

Atmospheric aerosols are important from a perspective of ambient air pollution and health to humans and other biological receptors as well as for potential effects on local weather and global climate. This review attempts to account for the different research efforts of individual research groups and regulatory agencies in India on the issue of atmospheric aerosols and their effects. The review...

We present a method to reduce the impact of source brightness fluctuations (SBFs) on spectra recorded by Fourier-transform spectrometry (FTS). Interferograms are recorded without AC coupling of the detector signal (DC mode). The SBF are determined by low-pass filtering of the DC interferograms, which are then reweighted by the low-pass, smoothed signal. Atmospheric solar absorption interferogra...

The accurate temporal and spatial quantification of sources and sinks of radiatively or chemically active atmospheric trace gases, constitutes a considerable scientific challenge. However, this quantification is needed for two purposes. Firstly, it provides critical data for the evaluation of process-based prognostic models, which are used to predict the evolution of the atmospheric composition...

Analyses of sediment cores from Jellybean Lake, a small, evaporation-insensitive groundwater-fed lake, provide a record of changes in North Pacific atmospheric circulation for the last ̈7500 yr at 5to 30-yr resolution. Isotope hydrology data from the southern Yukon indicate that the oxygen isotope composition of water from Jellybean Lake reflects the composition of mean-annual precipitation, y1...

In this study, African red-rains were collected at Montseny (NE Spain) on a weekly basis and analyzed for total particulate phosphorus (TPP), total dissolved P (TDP) and soluble reactive P (SRP) for the period 1996e2008. Wet and dry weekly deposition of TPP was analyzed for all provenances in 2002e2003. In this period, African sources were found to contribute 66% of the 576 mmol m 2 y 1 of tota...

Detailed airborne, surface, and subsurface chemical measurements, primarily obtained in May and June 2010, are used to quantify initial hydrocarbon compositions along different transport pathways (i.e., in deep subsurface plumes, in the initial surface slick, and in the atmosphere) during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Atmospheric measurements are consistent with a limited area of surfacing o...

Atmospheric aerosols, an important component of the atmosphere, are derived from a variety of sources (natural and anthropogenic) and comprise of wide-range of particles having different chemical composition, size (0.001 μm to 100 μm), shape and optical properties. They are mainly confined to the lower troposphere wherein intense vertical and horizontal mixing takes place. As a consequence, lar...

Motor oil serves as a useful model system for atmospheric oxidation of hydrocarbon mixtures typical of anthropogenic atmospheric particulate matter, but its complexity often prevents comprehensive chemical speciation. In this work we fully characterize this formerly "unresolved complex mixture" at the molecular level using recently developed soft ionization gas chromatography techniques. Nuclea...