Overview
CAS conducts fundamental
investigations of the atmosphere related to climate and climate change.
The current focus of CAS researchers is on the following major topics:
Physics and Chemistry
of the particles in the atmosphere
Role of aerosols, clouds
and water vapor in climate
Role of aerosols in
the asian monsoon and the hydrological cycle
Chemistry of the tropical
troposphere
Chemistry of the Stratosphere
Climate feedback due
to convection, clouds and water vapor
Monsoon dynamics
Bio-optics in the ocean
Aerosols,
clouds and water vapor have a dominant influence on the radiative heating of the
planet. For example, water vapor is the dominant greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
Ozone in the stratosphere regulates harmful UV radiation from reaching the surface;
while ozone near the surface can be toxic. How the climate forcing due to these
atmospheric species is altered by human activities and in turn how they feedback
onto natural or forced climate changes is a fundamentally unsolved problem.
These species also have important influences on the ocean-atmosphere dynamics.
Latent heating released in clouds determines the thermodynamical forcing of the
atmospheric general circulation, while the modulation of the sea surface radiative
heating by clouds, aerosol and water vapor have an important influence on the
thermodynamical forcing for the ocean circulation. Lastly, the quality of life
near the surface, and life in the ocean, is determined by surface temperature,
sunshine and rainfall. These variables, in turn are regulated by clouds, water
vapor and aerosols.