The Civil Analyst

  Haphazard development in urban areas has led to undesirable changes in the landscape. The areas which were once open land or covered with vegetation have been converted into concrete forests, asphalt covered roads, sidewalks and other infrastructure. The urbanization leads to the formation of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs) - the phenomenon referring to warmer temperature in the city relative to outlying rural areas. According to the Environment Protection Agency , bigger cities in US have air temperature up to 5ºC more than the nearby natural land cover. UHIs effects are most intense during the clear sky and calm winds as heavy cloud cover prevents solar radiation to reach earth surface, reducing day time warming in cities and strong winds accelerate atmospheric mixing, decreasing urban rural temperature gradient. How does it form? There are various factors that contribute to the formation of UHIs but the significant causes of UHIs formation are urban developments by changing in lan

  Three oxygen atoms when bound together forms ozone (O 3 ). It is very unstable and highly reactive relative to oxygen and often used as a bleach, a deodorizing agent, and a sterilization agent for air and drinking water. Ozone can be ‘good’ or bad for health and the environment depending on the place of its occurrence. Stratospheric ozone( at an altitude of 25-30 Km) is good because where it is found naturally and acts as a protective radiation shield for living organisms on earth. It strongly absorbs ultraviolet light in the region 220-330 nm and thereby protects life on earth from severe radiation damage. Ozone found in tropospheric region is termed as bad ozone or ground level ozone. When nitrogen oxides (NO x ), volatile organic compound (VOCs) (emitted by cars, power plants, refineries, chemical plants etc.) and sunlight reacts together to form various secondary pollutants, which are also known as photochemical oxidants. One of the most abundant photochemical oxidants is ozone

  One of carbonaceous gas in the earth atmosphere which takes part in global carbon cycle is Carbon Monoxide. Carbon Monoxide (CO) is a colourless, tasteless and odourless gas which is 96.5% as heavy as air and insoluble in water. Its molecular weight is 28.1 with a boiling point of -191.5ºC and melting point of -205ºC. However, it is not uniformly distributed on earth but can be transported long distances and remains in the atmosphere for a longer duration with an average residence time of 36-110 days. Some basic chemical reactions that yields CO are-       I.         Incomplete combustion of fuel: 2C + O 2 à 2CO     II.         Reactions between carbon dioxide and carbon containing materials at very high temperature such as in blast furnaces: CO 2 + C à 2CO    III.         Dissociation of carbon dioxide at elevated temperature CO 2 ó CO Sources and Sink of Carbon Monoxide in the Atmosphere There are two types of sources of CO in the atmosphere which are natural so

The National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Goa has come out with a study predicting that there would be a 24% increase in the expansion of the Amery Ice Shelf (AIS) boundaries in Antarctica by 2021 and another 24 per cent by 2026 from its 2016 positions. In this article we will see what is Amery Ice Shelf, where it is? And how it impact us? So what is Amery Ice Shelf (AIS)? Situated at the head of Prydz Bay between the Lars Christensen Coast and Ingrid Christensen Coast , the Amery Ice Shelf is a broad ice shelf in Antarctica . The name “Cape Amery” was given to a coastal angle mapped on February 11, 1931. It is part of Mac. Robertson Land. The Amery Ice Shelf is one of the largest glacier drainage basins in the world , located, at about 70ºS Latitude, 70ºE Longitude on the east coast of Antarctica. So the next question comes in our minds that what is Ice Shelves ? Let’s find out. The floating sheets of ice in the oceans is called ‘ ice shelves’ . It plays an

Now a days, oceanacidification has become a major problem and it is growing rapidly. Ocean acts as a natural carbon sink and absorb more than half of the CO 2 emitted in the atmosphere. Earlier, scientists thought that this might be beneficial for the planet to reduce the Greenhouse effect , as it leaves less carbon dioxide in the air. Moreover, they didn’t care about rising acidification in the Oceans because they thought that rivers carried enough dissolved chemicals from rocks providing buffer to ocean’s pH . Unfortunately, this is not the case as carbon dioxide is dissolving into the oceans so rapidly that this natural buffering has not been able to keep up, corresponding to rapidly decreasing pH in ocean’s surface waters. As those surface layers slowly mixed into deep water, the entire ocean is affected. Taking into account the great diversity of life in the oceans, increased acidification can harm the marine life in different ways. There are various effects of ocean acidificati

71% area of the earth is covered with water and around 97% of it is stored in oceans. Oceans act as a natural sink for carbon dioxide gas, absorbing 30% of CO 2 released in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels. Since industrial revolution our oceans have absorbed approximately 525 billion tons of CO 2 from the atmosphere. Presently, oceans are absorbing around 22 million tons of CO 2 per day causing drop in oceans pH level by 0.1 units. The pre-industrialization pH of the ocean water was 8.179 units which dropped to 8.1074 units in the 20 th century and at present it is 8.069 units resulting 30% more acidity in the world’s oceans. Scientists has warned that ocean acidification is rapidly progressing roughly 10 times faster than any time in the last 55 million years. What is Ocean Acidification? The ongoing and consistent drop of pH level of ocean water is referred as ocean acidification, which is mainly caused by uptake of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from the atmo