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Sources of carbonaceous aerosol in the Amazon basin
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP), Vol. 11. N° 3. Gilardoni S.; Vignati E.; Marmer E.; et al. - Copernicus GmbH, 2011The quantification of sources of carbonaceous aerosol is important to understand their atmospheric concentrations and regulating processes and to study possible effects on climate and air quality, in addition to develop mitigation strategies.
In the framework of the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate Interactions (EUCAARI) fine (Dp < 2.5 μm) and coarse (2.5 μm < Dp <10 μm) aerosol particles were sampled from February to June (wet season) and from August to September (dry season) 2008 in the central Amazon basin. The mass of fine particles averaged 2.4 μg m−3 duri ...
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Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-2747-2011
S. Gilardoni ; E. Vignati ; E. Marmer ; F. Cavalli ; C. Belis ; V. Gianelle ; A. Loureiro ; P. Artaxo
in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP) > Vol. 11. N° 3 [03/01/2011] . - p.2747-2764The quantification of sources of carbonaceous aerosol is important to understand their atmospheric concentrations and regulating processes and to study possible effects on climate and air quality, in addition to develop mitigation strategies.
In the framework of the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate Interactions (EUCAARI) fine (Dp < 2.5 μm) and coarse (2.5 μm < Dp <10 μm) aerosol particles were sampled from February to June (wet season) and from August to September (dry season) 2008 in the central Amazon basin. The mass of fine particles averaged 2.4 μg m−3 during the wet season and 4.2 μg m−3 during the dry season. The average coarse aerosol mass concentration during wet and dry periods was 7.9 and 7.6 μg m−3, respectively. The overall chemical composition of fine and coarse mass did not show any seasonality with the largest fraction of fine and coarse aerosol mass explained by organic carbon (OC); the average OC to mass ratio was 0.4 and 0.6 in fine and coarse aerosol modes, respectively. The mass absorbing cross section of soot was determined by comparison of elemental carbon and light absorption coefficient measurements and it was equal to 4.7 m2 g−1 at 637 nm. Carbon aerosol sources were identified by Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis of thermograms: 44% of fine total carbon mass was assigned to biomass burning, 43% to secondary organic aerosol (SOA), and 13% to volatile species that are difficult to apportion. In the coarse mode, primary biogenic aerosol particles (PBAP) dominated the carbonaceous aerosol mass. The results confirmed the importance of PBAP in forested areas.
The source apportionment results were employed to evaluate the ability of global chemistry transport models to simulate carbonaceous aerosol sources in a regional tropical background site. The comparison showed an overestimation of elemental carbon (EC) by the TM5 model during the dry season and OC both during the dry and wet periods. The overestimation was likely due to the overestimation of biomass burning emission inventories and SOA production over tropical areas.Language(s): English
Format: Digital (Free)Tags: Aerosols ; Amazon ; Carbon dioxide (CO2) ; Observations ; Air quality ; Region III - South America
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Climate variablity in the southern hemisphere
Global Change magazine, Issue 76. IGBP, 2011Most studies that reconstruct the climatic conditions of the past
centuries to millennia tend to focus on the northern hemisphere.
But now an intriguing multicentennial record of temperature and
precipitation in southern South America is available. Raphael
Neukom and Jürg Luterbacher elaborate on its significance.
[article]
in Global Change magazine > Issue 76 (January 2011) . - 4 p.Most studies that reconstruct the climatic conditions of the past
centuries to millennia tend to focus on the northern hemisphere.
But now an intriguing multicentennial record of temperature and
precipitation in southern South America is available. Raphael
Neukom and Jürg Luterbacher elaborate on its significance.Language(s): English
Tags: Climate ; Climate change ; Paleoclimatology ; Region III - South America
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World Weather Records, 1991-2000, volumes I-VI
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ; U.S. Department of Commerce ; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - WMO, 2011World Weather Records (WWR) have been published since 1927, and include monthly mean values of pressure, temperature, precipitation, and where available, station metadata notes documenting observation practices and station configurations. Data were supplied by National Meteorological Services as members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
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Available online: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/wdcmet/data-access-search-viewer-tools/world-weather-r [...]
World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ; U.S. Department of Commerce (United States) ; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (United States)
Published by: WMO ; 2011World Weather Records (WWR) have been published since 1927, and include monthly mean values of pressure, temperature, precipitation, and where available, station metadata notes documenting observation practices and station configurations. Data were supplied by National Meteorological Services as members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Language(s): English
Format: CD, DVD, Digital (Free)Tags: Weather ; Meteorological data ; Hydrological data ; Region II - Asia ; Region VI - Europe ; Region V - South-West Pacific ; Region IV - North America, Central America and the Caribbean ; Region III - South America ; Region I - Africa ; WWR
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Presentations - UNFCCC Workshop on Identification of Gaps and Challenges of Risk Management Approaches to the Adverse Effects of Climate Change
UNFCCC, 2011The SBI at its 33rd session requested the secretariat to organize, before its thirty-fifth session, a workshop to identify gaps and challenges in the implementation of risk management approaches to the adverse effects of climate change, building on the lessons learned and practical experience of international, regional and national organizations and the private sector.
Presentations - UNFCCC Workshop on Identification of Gaps and Challenges of Risk Management Approaches to the Adverse Effects of Climate Change
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Published by: UNFCCC ; 2011
The SBI at its 33rd session requested the secretariat to organize, before its thirty-fifth session, a workshop to identify gaps and challenges in the implementation of risk management approaches to the adverse effects of climate change, building on the lessons learned and practical experience of international, regional and national organizations and the private sector.
Notes: - WMO presentation: Global framework for climate services and its linkages to risk management, mapping of agencies/activities in hazard assessment. Gaps and challenges / Maryam Golnaraghi
- IPCC Presentation: IPCC Special report on managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation / Matilde RusticucciLanguage(s): English, Spanish
Format: Digital (Free)Tags: Natural hazards ; Climate change ; Disaster Risk Management (DRM) ; Switzerland ; Peru ; Canada ; Philippines ; Mongolia ; Region I - Africa
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Real-time evaluation of Norway’s international climate and forest initiative: contributions to national REDD+ processes 2007-2010: country report: Guyana
As a high forest cover / low deforestation rate country, Guyana has been keen to engage in a pilot of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to utilise payments for the environmental services. This paper aims to determine the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of Norway’s support to Guyana in terms of REDD aspects, and draw preliminary lessons and recommendations.
Real-time evaluation of Norway’s international climate and forest initiative: contributions to national REDD+ processes 2007-2010: country report: Guyana
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Available online: https://norad.no/en/toolspublications/publications/2011/real-time-evaluation-of- [...]
Published by: Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation ; 2011
As a high forest cover / low deforestation rate country, Guyana has been keen to engage in a pilot of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) to utilise payments for the environmental services. This paper aims to determine the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of Norway’s support to Guyana in terms of REDD aspects, and draw preliminary lessons and recommendations.
Language(s): English
Format: Digital (Free) (ill.)Tags: Environment and landscape ; Forest management ; Afforestation ; Global warming ; Guyana
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Climate: observations, projections and impacts
The Met.Office, 2011Understanding the potential impacts of climate change is essential for informing both adaptation strategies and actions to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.
But assessing the impacts is scientifically challenging and has, until now, been fragmented. To date, only a limited amount of information about past climate change and its future impacts has been available at national level, while approaches to the science itself have varied between countries.
In April 2011, we were asked by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to begi ...
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Food insecurity and public agricultural spending in Bolivia: Putting money where your mouth is?
This paper explores the reduction of food insecurity in Bolivia, adopting a supply side approach that analyzes the role of agricultural spending on vulnerability. Vulnerability to food insecurity is captured by a municipal level composite—developed locally within the framework of World Food Program food security analysis—that combines welfare outcomes, weather conditions and agricultural potential for all 327 municipalities in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Our econometric results indicate that levels of public agricultural spending are positively associated with high or very high vulnerability. The aut ...
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Energy Security in South America and Southern Africa: Synthesis Report
This briefing stems from a project that focused on electricity supply and the extent to which it’s traded within Southern Africa and South America. Within this the current and projected regional energy production mixes were established and since concerns over climate change are finding their way into many aspects of economic growth and development the project also explored the role that the regional ‘anchor states’ (South Africa and Brazil respectively) are likely to play in securing the future balance in light of climate change and related mitigation imperatives.
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The quest for energy security in Argentina
Electricity consumption in Argentina has grown at a rate well above the net GDP in the last years, whereas capacity increase has been slower than consumption increase. This report deals with the problem of energy security in Argentina, which implies many challenges for the country. The author illustrates that the problem emerged first in 2004 as a consequence of the particular modalities adopted by the macroeconomic structural and energy sector reforms of the 1990s, which are still in place today.
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Regional Association III (South America) - Fifteenth session : abridged final report with resolutions
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Assessing the role of economic instruments in a policy mix for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision : a review of some methodological challenges
In the context of the EU 2010 goal of halting biodiversity loss, researchers have been called upon to evaluate the role of economic instruments for cost-effective decision-making, as well as non-market methods to assess their benefits. This paper reviews a number of methodological challenges of evaluating and designing economic instruments aimed at biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services provision in an existing policy mix. The study draws on experiences from Brazil and Costa Rica.
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Energy security in South America: the role of Brazil
South America has vast energy resources, but countries in the region are unable to guarantee adequate energy security levels for their consumers. This paper argues that the potential economic benefits from the process of South America’s regional energy integration are high, though national regulations impose strong barriers to such a process.
The study deems regional energy cooperation is particularly essential for removing the insecurity of energy supplies facing the region.
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From forest to fork : how cattle, soy and sugar are destroying Brazil’s forests and damaging the climate. summary report
Brussels, January 25, 2011 – Growing demand for meat, animal feeds and agrofuels in Europe is contributing to the continued destruction of the Amazon and Cerrado habitats in Brazil, reveals a new report launched today by Friends of the Earth Europe.
The research comes at a time when Europe is debating the future of farming. [1] Friends of the Earth Europe is calling for the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to reduce the EU’s dependence on imported soy animal feeds and meat.
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