May 16, 2022 12:00:00

It turns out that the number of hurricanes is increasing as the air gets cleaner

Pollution control efforts over the past few decades have reduced air pollution in the United States and Europe, allowing people to breathe cleaner air than in the past. However, in a paper published in Science Advances, a scientific journal by

Hiroyuki Murakami , who belongs to the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Research Institute of the US Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , tropical cyclones (hurricanes) in the Atlantic Ocean as air pollution decreases in the western part of the Northern Hemisphere. ) Has been shown to be increasing.

Substantial global influence of anthropogenic aerosols on tropical cyclones over the past 40 years
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abn9493

Study finds cleaner air leads to more Atlantic hurricanes
https://phys.org/news/2022-05-cleaner-air-atlantic-hurricanes.html

There's an Unfortunate Causal Link Between Cleaner Air And Atlantic Hurricanes
https://www.sciencealert.com/in-a-cruel-twist-study-finds-cleaner-air-leads-to-more-atlantic-hurricanes

Substances such as dust, soot, and sulfate emitted by human industrial activities and automobiles become aerosols that float in the air. The artificially generated aerosol causes air pollution, but at the same time, it is known that the aerosol blocks the sunlight falling on the earth and reduces the influence of global warming. In fact, attempts to prevent global warming by spraying sulfur dioxide , which becomes a sulfate when oxidized in the atmosphere, into the stratosphere are also being discussed.

What is 'Geo engineering' that sprinkles sulfur dioxide in the stratosphere to block sunlight and prevent global warming? --GIGAZINE

Murakami, who studies hurricanes at NOAA, ran a number of climate simulations on computers to explain changes in tropical cyclone activity in different parts of the globe that cannot be explained by the natural climate cycle. As a result of analyzing the air pollution level and the occurrence of tropical cyclones over the past 40 years, it was found that air pollution caused by aerosols affects the occurrence of tropical cyclones.

Specifically, Murakami points out that a 50% decrease in aerosols in Europe and the United States was associated with an increase of about 33% in hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. On the other hand, in Asia, where aerosols increased by 50% from 1980 to 2010 due to the development of China and India, the number of tropical cyclones in the western Pacific decreased by 14% from 1980 to 2000 to 2001 to 2020. I found out that there is.

This is because the cooling effect of aerosols lowers the temperature of seawater in certain sea areas, making it difficult to meet the conditions for 'warm seawater' required for tropical cyclones. In addition, the decrease in aerosols is pushing up the subtropical jet stream blowing from east to west near 30 degrees north latitude in the north direction, which also promotes the generation of tropical cyclones.

Jim Kossin, a hurricane scholar at The Climate Service , who analyzes the financial risks associated with climate change, said in response to the results of this study, 'This is the Atlantic Ocean, which was quiet in the 1970s and 1980s, but has gone crazy since the mid-1990s. That's why I did it. '

In recent years, it has been shown that tropical cyclones have become larger and stronger due to the effects of global warming, and that their movement speed has slowed down. However, since air pollution has been pointed out as 'the most serious health risk for humans,' it is nonsense to increase aerosol air pollution to curb tropical cyclones.

Claiming that the biggest threat to human health is 'not a virus', what is the most shortening of human life? --GIGAZINE

'Air pollution is a life-threatening problem, so reducing aerosol emissions is important no matter how many tropical cyclones are,' said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the University of Washington who studies the relationship between health and extreme weather. Said.