Aerosols?

     Aerosols can have a huge impact on both climate and climate change. Aerosols are often thought to be limited to aerosol spray cans or their dispersion, but the term is much broader. Aerosols are any particles suspended in the air; this can encompass clouds, sand, smoke, and many other particles both harmful and harmless. Aerosols in the atmosphere are the result of any number of activities, both natural and influenced by man, such as the stirring of soil dust, the evaporation of sea salt, or direct emissions from vehicles such as cars.

     Aerosols can greatly impact the world we live in, even affecting such trivial things as local weather and health. Because of their position in the atmosphere, aersols have two major purposes. One of these is the deflection of a portion of sunlight which, like ozone, helps to protect the Earth from its own form of overexposure. The other is ozone depletion, a complicated process in which aerosols form a type of cloud that breaks down ozone in colder temperatures. Aerosols can also have a significant influence on cardiovascular and respiratory diseases because of accidental breathing in of aerosol particles; major cases of this have resulted in wide-spread suffering such as in the London Smog Disaster.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerosols

http://aerosol.ees.ufl.edu/atmos_aerosol/section01.html

On Ozone

     Ozone is an important aspect of Earth's atmosphere. It is created through the binding three oxygen atoms and is vastly unstable. Most ozone (about 90%) occurs in the stratosphere, 8 to 50 km above Earth where the unstable compound absorbs most of the UV rays from the Sun, shielding the Earth and her life forms and, in consequence, making life on Earth possible.
     Ozone found below the stratosphere is called surface ozone. Ozone near the surface reacts strongly with organic matter, which can be potentially harmful to humans, plants, animals, and other objects. Surface ozone is largely man-made and is affected by machines (which generally produce high levels of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, a compound released in the air when something is heated and compunds in the air, respectively). This can be harmful to breathe both in lower and higher concentrations, particularly in regard to one’s lungs or developing/injured lungs. It manifests in symptoms such as asthma.
     Because Ozone impacts our world so significantly, it's important that we ultilize our ability to study it. Understanding our O^3 footprint and how it affects the world we live in today can help us to understand ways we can change our living habits (or should have changed).

Sites used for gathering information (third link is a powerpoint from NASA):

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone
• http://www.ozonelayer.noaa.gov/science/basics.htm
• http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&sqi=2&ved=0CB8QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmynasadata.larc.nasa.gov%2Fdocs%2FL10_ozone.ppt&ei=_Il1UInxLKvG0AGTvIHwCA&usg=AFQjCNGKZTjZowrT8aiz97djq686K5vLZg

On Working in Groups,

While working in groups this past project, there were several positive and negative aspects to both its duration and final product. The group provided a more balanced approach to teamwork (wherein we were able to divide up tasks), collect information more effectively (again because of that division), and discuss any information that may have appeared obsene or illogical. There were also, however, many negative aspects to this combination. All of our group members (including myself) was absent for at least half of the project and it was difficuilt to correctly produce data that was reflective of any in-group analysis. We also had issues completeing our projects in time, and our group was almost constantly confused.