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Another underestimated source of CO2, are turbulent waters. "The stronger the turbulences at the water's surface, the more CO2 is released into the atmosphere. The combination of maps and data revealed that, while the CO2 emissions from lakes and reservoirs are lower than assumed, those from rivers and streams are three times as high as previously believed." Alltogether the emitted CO2 equates to roughly one-fifth of the emissions caused by humans. Yet more stuff to model...

Nasia, I thought about your statement carefully - and I cannot agree with you. Water is not a greenhouse gas. It is instead a liquid. Also, I can't believe you keep feeding the troll! :-P But on a more topical note: I think it is an over-simplification to call water a greenhouse gas - water is one of the most important mechanisms in the way Earth handles heat input from the sun. The latent heat that you mention actually cools Earth: solar energy that would otherwise heat Earth's surface is ABSORBED as latent heat by water which consequently evaporates - the same water condenses into rain drops at high altitudes and releases this stored heat. In effect the water cycle is a mechanism of heat transport from low altitude to high altitude where the chance of infrared radiation escaping into space is much higher due to the much thinner layer of atmosphere above (including the smaller abundance of greenhouse gasses). Also, as I know you are well aware, the cloud cover that results from water condensation in the troposphere dramatically increases albedo which has a cooling effect on climate. Furthermore the heat capacity of wet air ("humid heat") is much larger than that of dry air - so any advective heat transfer due to air currents is more efficient in wet air - transporting heat from warm areas to a natural heat sink e.g. polar regions. Of course there are also climate heating effects of water like the absorption of IR radiation. But I stand by my statement (as defended in the above) that rain cools the atmosphere. Oh and also some nice reading material on the complexities related to climate feedback due to sea surface temperature: http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442(1993)006%3C2049%3ALSEOTR%3E2.0.CO%3B2

I enjoy trolling conversations when there is a gain for both sides at the end :-) . I had to check upon some of the facts in order to explain my self properly. The IPCC report states the greenhouse gases here, and water vapour is included: http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/faq-2-1.html Honestly, I read only the abstract of the article you posted, which is a very interesting hypothesis on the mechanism of regulating sea surface temperature, but it is very localized to the tropics (vivid convection, storms) a region of which I have very little expertise, and is difficult to study because it has non-hydrostatic dynamics. The only thing I can comment there is that the authors define constant relative humidity for the bottom layer, supplied by the oceanic surface, which limits the implementation of the concept on other earth regions. Also, we may confuse during the conversation the greenhouse gas with the Radiative Forcing of each greenhouse gas: I see your point of the latent heat trapped in the water vapour, and I agree, but the effect of the water is that it traps even as latent heat an amount of LR that would otherwise escape back to space. That is the greenhouse gas identity and an image to see the absorption bands in the atmosphere and how important the water is, without vain authority-based arguments that miss the explanation in the end: http://www.google.nl/imgres?imgurl=http://www.solarchords.com/uploaded/82/87-33833-450015_44absorbspec.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.solarchords.com/agw-science/4/greenhouse--1-radiation/33784/&h=468&w=458&sz=28&tbnid=x2NtfKh5OPM7lM:&tbnh=98&tbnw=96&zoom=1&usg=__KldteWbV19nVPbbsC4jsOgzCK6E=&docid=cMRZ9f22jbtYPM&sa=X&ei=SwynUq2TMqiS0QXVq4C4Aw&ved=0CDkQ9QEwAw

Wow, this is a bit frigthening. Another proof that we understand very little about our atmosphere !!!

very interesting indeed!

To determine the mass of an exoplanet using transmission spectroscopy, de Wit relied on the effect that a planet's mass has on its atmosphere, as transmission spectra give information on a planet's atmospheric properties. To do that, he worked from a standard equation describing the effect of a planet's temperature, gravitational force, and atmospheric density on its atmospheric pressure profile-the extent to which pressure changes throughout its atmosphere.

NASA and ESA spacecraft have gathered new information about the basic properties of the comet's nucleus (not 67p) and directly detected the effects on the Martian atmosphere. Dust from the comet impacted Mars and was vaporized high in the atmosphere, producing what was likely an impressive meteor shower. Eight different types of metal ions have been detected, including sodium, magnesium and iron. The satellites will now continue to look for long-term perturbations to Mars' atmosphere.

This link has a nice concise explanation of helium escaping the atmosphere. http://www.astronomynotes.com/solarsys/s3.htm (this link describes the mechanics of particles escaping the atmosphere, this includes escape velocity, thermal and nonthermal process) http://www.springerlink.com/content/k094u75188h64516/fulltext.pdf ( and if you are really interested, this paper discuss helium in the atmosphere (production and loss) in much more detail )

Spectra of the atmosphere of the planet GJ436b in the constellation Loe show evidence for carbon monoxide. Theoretical studies using numerical models however predicted that this planet's carbon inventory should be stored in the form of methane rather than CO as its temperature is estimated to be 800K. Where this inaccuracy of atmospheric models comes from is not known and has to be investigated further.

The loss rate of Mars' original atmosphere apparently has been quantified through isotope ratio measurements. Should be useful for climate engineering studies (Isabelle & Markus ?)

Atmospheric rivers, short-lived wind tunnels are created in the upper troposphere and carry vast amounts of water. They 'fuel' from the tropical Pacific reservoir and cause heavy precipitation events and even floods to mid-latitude land, as soon as they encounter the Sierra mountains. The new finding is that two inter-hemispheric climatic oscillation modes allow for their creation, as soon as they are found in a certain phase combination.

Could we conceivably control these like we're thinking to do with taifuns? :)) Would be geoengineering at its finest

tried to find the original science paper but could not .... the only one I found was this one: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1210/2

"Plan 9 from outer space" quote confirmed : atmospheric conditions in outer space stall communications! Wonder how many more facts of the movie will prove right in the end...

very interesting study. Although it is not so much a surprise, they cite many papers on planetary formation that predicted this, and the only paper on degassing they cite is from our rather unpopular french ex-minister of research c. allegre, who refuses the fact that humans have an impact on climate...

Joris was faster :-)

Damn! ;P

We finally have an understanding of how Mars transformed from a once habitable, Earth-like planet, into the dry world we see today. NASA researchers have just announced that Mars' once rich atmosphere was stripped away by solar winds in the early days of the Solar System, causing the planet to dry out.

More than a century after the idea was first floated, physicists have finally figured out how to tie water in knots in the laboratory. The gnarly feat, described today in Nature Physics1, paves the way for scientists to experimentally study twists and turns in a range of phenomena - ionized gases like that of the Sun's outer atmosphere, superconductive materials, liquid crystals and quantum fields that describe elementary particles.

Lord Kelvin proposed that atoms were knotted "vortex rings" - which are essentially like tornado bent into closed loops and knotted around themselves, as Daniel Lathrop and Barbara Brawn-Cinani write in an accompanying commentary. In Kelvin's vision, the fluid was the theoretical 'aether' then thought to pervade all of space. Each type of atom would be represented by a different knot.

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Kelvin's interpretation of the periodic table never went anywhere, but his ideas led to the blossoming of the mathematical theory of knots, part of the field of topology. Meanwhile, scientists also have come to realize that knots have a key role in a host of physical processes.

Bacteria found at 8-15 km altitude could play a much bigger role in cloud formation and precipitation than previously thought... According to this study bacteria represent around 20 % of the total atmospheric aerosols in their size range! They say it could also have implications for the spread of diseases...

20% ????

"chances are that if 700 passengers are flown annually, up to 10 of them might not survive the flight in the first years of the operations." most remarkable also the question who is to blame if a dead and burned space tourist corps comes crashing down from the sky into your car.

This calls for some we serious simulations by the Petkow code it seems to me ...

I still would need some serious input data...

More information on the future of UAVs and the space industry.

CNES research to detect warning signs of earthquakes in the ionosphere. Jaxa is also interested in conducting such studies. To my opinion it's worth taken a closer look at what they are doing!! 

Update: it seems we are already looking into it, I found this recent call from ESRIN: IONOSPHERIC SOUNDING FOR IDENTIFICATION OF PRE-SEISMIC ACTIVITY (RE-ISSUE) ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO7548 Open Date: 08/07/2013 Closing Date: 09/09/2013

Energy harvesting device taps into atmospheric humidity - basically by exploiting the behaviour of water droplets when they come in contact with a superhydrophobic surfaces. Could it be exploited for other atmospheres?

Seems a little speculative but pretty interesting thoughts. In regards to terraforming Mars this might be of interest: "During the daytime, plant-like microorganisms on a Martian-like surface could photosynthesize hydrogen peroxide. At night, when the atmosphere is relatively humid, they could use their stored hydrogen peroxide to scavenge water from the atmosphere, similar to how microbial communities in the Atacama use the moisture that salt brine extracts from the air to stay alive."