Aug 3 1982
From The Space Library
NASA announced that ARC and LaRC were cooperating in the acquisition of data on the giant stratospheric cloud produced by the eruption of El Chichon volcano in March and April, now covering much of the Earth's northern hemisphere, to define the cloud's effect on global weather patterns. The centers were using satellites, U-2 aircraft, and lidar (light-intensification detection and ranging) for the study. The lidar equipment, mounted in a Lockheed Electra aircraft, would shoot laser pulses into the atmosphere and monitor reflections, "painting" the spatial and vertical extent of cloud layers above the aircraft. Lidar measurements in mid-July confirmed earlier findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that the volcano had put up to 50 times (500 times in some areas) the normal amount of aerosols into the upper atmosphere; that the material layers had spread to different latitudes, depending on altitude; and that sunlight reaching Earth's surface could be reduced several percent.
The cloud, a mixture of dust and sulfuric acid, would offer "a once-in-a lifetime chance" to form an information base for prediction of dispersion, changes in temperature, and dynamic and photochemical changes, according to Dr. M. Patrick McCormick, head of LaRC's aerosol research branch. Dr. Brian Toon, atmospheric physicist at ARC, said that the most likely effect of the cloud would be a gradual reduction in northern hemisphere temperature over the next two years. (NASA Release 82-115; ARC Release 82-31; LaRC Release 82-57)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
