- Laboratory for Global Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry
- School of Environmental Sciences
- University of East Anglia
- Norwich
- NR4 7TJ
- UK
- +44 (0)
Phd Tiltle
Revisiting the CLAW hypothesis
Twenty-two years ago, Charlson et al. (1987) proposed what has become an iconic example of a possible ‘Gaian’ regulatory mechanism. The ‘CLAW hypothesis’ postulated a feedback between marine biological emission of dimethylsulphide (DMS), atmospheric sulphate aerosols, cloud albedo and climate.
Recent connections between the solar radiation dose (SRD) and sea surface DMS concentrations (Vallina and Simo, 2007) and between the SRD, DMS oxidation and the number density of cloud condensation nuclei (Vallina et al., 2007) may suggest the opperation of a negative feedback.
The aim of my project is to re-examine and quantify this feedback using a mixture of data analysis and modelling.
Supervisors
Dr Parvadha Suntharalingam, Prof Tim Lenton and Dr Thomas Bell,Publications
Miles C.J., Bell T.G., Lenton T.M. (2009) Testing the relationship between the solar radiation dose and surface DMS concentrations using in situ data. Biogeosciences, 6, 1927–1934, |
