Friday, August 14, 2015

The Significance of Air Pollution in Weather Patterns

Jiwen Fan, a leading specialist in air pollution and climate, recently published a scientific paper analyzing the impacts of pollution in storm intensity. The concept behind this analysis began following the Sichuan Flood of 2013, a place known for its high air contamination, that closely accompanied a massive earthquake. Fan began inquiring the role the air quality played in the trend toward extreme weather in this region. Setting up a model with both clean and foul air, the Fan and her co-authors saw that the addition of pollutants suppressed rainfall until extensive amounts of water forced the clouds to precipitate. Ultimately Fan’s research supports other scientists’ work pushing for pollution to be taken into consideration in weather forecasts.  
The best possible solution to the unreliability of weather reports is to create a machine that takes in a sample of air quality in a specific location-with various other factors- to predict weather conditions. As air pollution in regions change, this machine could be altered to current events. The issue with a machine would be the obvious cost to build a reliable weather apparatus and the imperfection of such a device.
I believe it is quite interesting the role pollution plays in weather patterns. As weather itself has gotten more extreme in recent years, meteorologists and national governments need to have a quick and effective method to interpret the weather for the day. Time is of the essence- especially in situations that involve a lot of people evacuating. Many people are going to state how we should look at this situation as a huge call to stop pollution. However, in third world countries volleying for any type of economic advancement this is simply not a choice. I think the best method to handle such a common issue in today’s world is to adapt, then try to fix.


Article: http://news.sciencemag.org/asiapacific/2015/07/catastrophic-chinese-floods-triggered-air-pollution

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