NEW YORK, March 14 (UPI) -- NASA scientists say they've found a major form of global air pollution involved in summertime "smog" has also played a significant role in Arctic warming.
In a global assessment of the impact of ozone on climate warming, scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City evaluated how ozone in the lowest part of the atmosphere changed temperatures during the past 100 years.
Using the best available estimates of global emissions of gases that produce ozone, computer model study reveals how much that single air pollutant, and greenhouse gas, has contributed to warming in specific regions of the world.
According to researchers, ozone was responsible for one-third to half of the observed warming trend in the Arctic during winter and spring. Ozone is transported from the industrialized countries in the Northern Hemisphere to the Arctic quite efficiently during those seasons.
The research will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the American Geophysical Union's Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres.
