Atmospheric biology: Over the ocean

It has become increasingly apparent that oxygenated organic species are more ubiquitous in remote parts of the troposphere than might be expected from our current understanding of atmospheric chemistry. These compounds play a central role in global photochemistry and contribute to tropospheric aerosol formation. An airborne survey by DC-8 and P-3B aircraft reveals a remarkably high abundance of oxygenated organic species above the tropical Pacific Ocean that cannot be explained by current atmospheric models. The findings call for large, diffuse and previously unknown sources of these species such as oxidation of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere and photochemical degradation of biologically produced organic mater in surface oceans.

Evidence from the Pacific troposphere for large global sources of oxygenated organic compounds
H. SINGH, Y. CHEN, A. STAUDT, D. JACOB, D. BLAKE, B. HEIKES & J. SNOW
Nature 410, 1078-1081 (26 April 2001)
| First Paragraph | Full Text | PDF (180 K) |

26 April 2001 table of contents