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| Surabi Menon |
Black Carbon Contributes to Droughts and Floods in China, says Scientist Surabi Menon
Columbia scientist Surabi Menon says that large amounts of black carbon (soot) particles and other pollutants are causing changes in precipitation and temperatures over China and may be at least partially responsible for the tendency toward increased floods and droughts in those regions over the last several decades. Menon and her colleague, James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, indicate in a paper appearing in the September 27 issue of Science, that black carbon can affect regional climate by absorbing sunlight, heating the air and thereby altering large scale atmospheric circulation and the hydrologic cycle.
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