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Pinpointing the Cause of Earth’s Recent Record CO2 Spike

A new NASA study provides space-based evidence that Earth’s tropical regions were the cause of the largest annual increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration seen in at least 2,000 years.

What was the cause of this?

Scientists suspect that the 2015-2016 El Niño – one of the largest on record – was responsible. El Niño is a cyclical warming pattern of ocean circulation in the Pacific Ocean that affects weather all over the world. Before OCO-2, we didn’t have enough data to understand exactly how El Nino played a part.

Analyzing the first 28 months of data from our Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite, researchers conclude that impacts of El Niño-related heat and drought occurring in the tropical regions of South America, Africa and Indonesia were responsible for the record spike in global carbon dioxide.

These three tropical regions released 2.5 gigatons more carbon into the atmosphere than they did in 2011. This extra carbon dioxide explains the difference in atmospheric carbon dioxide growth rates between 2011 and the peak years of 2015-16.

In 2015 and 2016, OCO-2 recorded atmospheric carbon dioxide increases that were 50% larger than the average increase seen in recent years preceding these observations.

In eastern and southern tropical South America, including the Amazon rainforest, severe drought spurred by El Niño made 2015 the driest year in the past 30 years. Temperatures were also higher than normal. These drier and hotter conditions stressed vegetation and reduced photosynthesis, meaning trees and plants absorbed less carbon from the atmosphere. The effect was to increase the net amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.

In contrast, rainfall in tropical Africa was at normal levels, but ecosystems endured hotter-than-normal temperatures. Dead trees and plants decomposed more, resulting in more carbon being released into the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, tropical Asia had the second-driest year in the past 30 years. Its increased carbon release, primarily from Indonesia, was mainly due to increased peat and forest fires -  also measured by satellites.

We knew El Niños were one factor in these variations, but until now we didn’t understand, at the scale of these regions, what the most important processes were. OCO-2’s geographic coverage and data density are allowing us to study each region separately.

Why does the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere matter?

The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere is constantly changing. It changes from season to season as plants grow and die, with higher concentrations in the winter and lower amounts in the summer. Annually averaged atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have generally increased year over year since the 1800s – the start of the widespread Industrial Revolution. Before then, Earth’s atmosphere naturally contained about 595 gigatons of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. Currently, that number is 850 gigatons.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which means that it can trap heat. Since greenhouse gas is the principal human-produced driver of climate change, better understanding how it moves through the Earth system at regional scales and how it changes over time are important aspects to monitor.

Get more information about these data HERE.

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Unveiling the F1 enigma series.

Formula one or F-1 is one of the most prestigious and technologically advanced sports in the world.The never-ending battle for supremacy makes F-1 one of the most competitive, expensive and demanding sports in the world.

It is a game of chess played at 300 Kmph.The real war though is fought behind closed doors in the secrecy of the team’s headquarters. 

As March 13 marks the start of a new season of this motor sport, we decided that it was high time we unveil the technology that underlies the stardom of the automobile industry - The formula one car.

From questions like what enables a formula one car to go upside down a tunnel? to awfully simple questions like does the F-1 car have an ignition key and why not? we will try to cover it all. Most importantly, we will try to weave what you already know to explain new concepts. 

 The rough list of contents for this series are:

A brief history of Formula one.

Aerodynamics- The art of glueing the car to the ground.

The nucleus of the car- F-1 engine and the gearbox.

One has to stop!! -Brakes and steering wheel.

Tyre and fuel technology- This rarely is given the importance that it needs.

Fun facts and trivia with every post.

If you have any questions that you have in mind to be answered and topics that we have missed, please post it in the comments section below. We would be delighted to address them.

Hang onto your hats, it’s going to be a wild and crazy ride ahead!

We Indians always ameliorate our products and services.

Hm rahe ya na rhe kl! !!!

Revolutionary Duke Engine.

The Duke engine is a four stroke “axial” reciprocating engine. “Axial” because the axis of each cylinder is aligned with the axis of the output/crank shaft.

The most immediately obvious advantages of the Duke Engine are its size and weight when compared to late model conventional internal combustion engine.The current prototype Duke 3-liter engine is up to 19% lighter than those two engines, despite being far from optimized for minimum weight.

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