Energy crisis could become a win-win situation for climate and the economy

A study retrospectively calculates for 2022

08-Feb-2023 - Since the Russian attack on Ukraine almost a year ago, there is no shortage of pessimistic forecasts for the climate and for the economy: geopolitical tensions might eclipse the fight against global heating, and oil and gas price shocks might ruin our prosperity. But a new study based on a ...

A single instrument determines a total of ten greenhouse gases and air pollutants simultaneously and with high precision

"Innosuisse Certificate" for Empa Spin-off: Ready for sustainable growth

12-Dec-2022 - Founded in February 2018 as an Empa spin-off, the start-up company "MIRO Analytical" received one of the coveted "Innosuisse Certificates" in October. The certificate reflects the remarkable progress the young company made during the funding agency's coaching program and confirms that the ...

Mirror image molecules reveal drought stress in forests

Ecosystem changes can be more accurately predicted by emissions of chiral compounds

09-Sep-2022 - Worldwide, plants emit about 100 million tonnes of monoterpenes into the atmosphere each year. These volatile organic molecules include many fragrances such as the molecule pinene – known for its pine fresh scent. Since these molecules are highly reactive and can form tiny aerosol particles that ...

Chemical triad forms seeds for clouds

Synergistic particle formation in the upper troposphere by nitric acid, sulfuric acid and ammonia

20-May-2022 - Atmospheric aerosol particles are needed as seeds to form clouds, but the controlling processes are not fully understood. By combining experiments in the CERN cloud cham-ber and computer modelling, a team of international researchers, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for ...

Light amplification accelerates chemical reactions in aerosols

Temporal sequence of photochemical reaction in individual aerosol particles observed with high resolution

21-Apr-2022 - Aerosols in the atmosphere react to incident sunlight. This light is amplified in the interior of the aerosol droplets and particles, accelerating reactions. ETH researchers have now been able to demonstrate and quantify this effect and recommend factoring it into future climate models. Liquid ...

Nobel Prize in Physics 2021: Climate and other complex phenomena

05-Oct-2021 - Three Laureates share this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for their studies of chaotic and apparently random phenomena. Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it. Giorgio Parisi is rewarded for his revolutionary ...

Ocean sink for man-made CO2 measured

18-Mar-2019 - An international research project led by scientists from ETH Zurich has determined the amount of man-made CO2 emissions taken up by the ocean between 1994 and 2007. Not all of the CO2 generated during the combustion of fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere and contributes to global warming. The ...

Rapid pair production: Detection of a new reaction path in the atmosphere

04-Apr-2018 - Scientists have now observed a particularly rapid type of pair production in the laboratory: Hydrocarbons double when two peroxyl radicals react with each other. This means that stable products with the carbon skeleton of both peroxyl radicals are formed, which very likely will have a peroxide ...

Cloud Formation: How Feldspar Acts as Ice Nucleus

12-Dec-2016 - In the atmosphere, feldspar particles act as ice nuclei that make ice crystals grow in clouds and enable precipitation. The reason was found by researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and University College London (UCL) with the help of electron microscopy observations and ...

Volcanic eruptions slow down climate change

15-Jul-2015 - Although global concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has continuously increased over the past decade, the mean global surface temperature has not followed the same path. A team of international reseachers, KIT scientists among them, have now found an explanation for this slowing ...