-
Today, there is little doubt that global climate change is taking place. Measurements reveal an increase of temperature by about 0.7° C in the past 100 years, which is attributed in large part to the enormous increase of anthropogenically, produced greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide (up to 30%). The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCC, was established to control the man made emissions of greenhouse gases and the Intergovernmental Panle on Climate Change, IPCC, was establish to assess climate change and report to the United Nations. There have been four IPCC reports released in 2007.
-
The SCIAMACHY spectrometer on the Envisat satellite is the first instrument which to make global observations of CO2 and CH4 as well as other relevant atmospheric trace gases. Bremen is therefore in an unique position to deliver observations of the atmospheric loading of the greenhouse gases released form fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning. These observations are necessary for
-
a) the surveillance of the release of these gases by natural phenomena and anthropogenic activity,
-
b) to improve our understanding of their removal and in particular their uptake by the biosphere,
-
c) the improvement of our knowledge fo the global carbon cycle and,
-
d) the monitoring of the effectiveness or otherwise of international environmental policy
more information:
