Global Atmospheric Chemical Change (Hardcover, illustrated edition)

As little as 20 years ago, the generally held image of the Arctic as a remote and pristine environment, untouched by the activities of man, was unquestioned. Reports by aircraft observers of bands of visibility-reducing haze were attributed to natural causes. It has since been well established that this "Arctic Haze" is largely the result of a massive influx of pollution from the industrialized nations of the Northern hemisphere into the Arctic regions during the winter and spring. This pollution has been shown to comprise of heavy metals from smelting and industrial processes, soot, nitrogen and sulphur compounds from fossil fuel burning, and toxic organic substances, to name only a few. There is growing concern regarding the implications of this pollution of the Arctic atmosphere. Many of the pollutants are also found in the snow-pack and ice layers, with as yet unknown implications for Arctic ecology. Absorption of solar and terrestrial radiation by haze layers, and changes in the surface albedo by deposition of soot onto snow surfaces, may all potentially exert an influence on arctic climate and polar ice extent, with possible repercussions on global-scale climate and sea-levels. In addition, the much publicized "Ozone-Hole" over the Antarctic is evidently also poised to appear over the Arctic, and indeed may already have begun to form. Due to the pressing nature of these concerns, the last ten years have seen an explosion of research activity in polar atmospheric research. In this fast changing field, this book attempts to bring together the most up-to-date and important findings of research on Arctic air pollution. This text deals solely with atmospheric pollution in the Arctic, and gives a comprehensive overview of the entire subject area. This book is aimed at the research community, but particular effort has been made to provide a detailed treatment of the basic subject matter, so that it could be used as a text for undergraduate and graduate instruction, and be accessible to scientists outside the specific fields of atmospheric chemistry and physics.