The increasing trend of rising tropospheric temperatures due to the global climate change is reflected in the efficacy
of Indian monsoons too. It is imperative to have a high level, skilled mechanism to monitor and predict this trend
to help manage preparedness.

The main objective of this note is to affirm that if trend of all-India rainfall, 4 weeks in advance is the sought objective, then this is achievable; in particular, this applies to the Indian summer monsoon 2012. (Correspondence)

The deliberate injection of particles into the stratosphere has been suggested as a possible geoengineering scheme to mitigate the global warming aspect of climate change. Injected particles scatter solar radiation back to space and thus reduce the radiative balance of Earth. Previous studies investigating this scheme have focused primarily on sulphuric acid particles to mimic volcanic injections of stratospheric aerosol. However, the composition and size of volcanic sulphuric acid particles are far from optimal for scattering solar radiation.

Exposure to ozone has been associated with adverse health effects, including premature mortality and cardiopulmonary and respiratory morbidity. In 2008, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lowered the primary (health-based) National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for ozone to 75 ppb, expressed as the fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hr average over a 24-hr period. Based on recent monitoring data, U.S. ozone levels still exceed this standard in numerous locations, resulting in avoidable adverse health consequences.


Winter temperature inversions—layers of air in which temperature increases with altitude—trap air pollutants and lead to higher pollutant concentrations. Previous studies have evaluated associations between pollutants and emergency department (ED) visits for asthma, but none have considered inversions as independent risk factors for ED visits for asthma.


Data are presented that support the idea of an oxygenation event in the immediate aftermath of the Marinoan glaciation, pre-dating previous estimates for post-Marinoan oxygenation by more than 50 million years.