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How old masters are helping study of global warming, The Guardian, Monday October 1 2007, David Adam, environment correspondent
Paintings of striking sunsets show effect of huge volcanic eruptions on climate
The English landscape painter JMW Turner said his work was not to be understood but "to show what such a scene was like". Now global warming experts are taking advantage of his prosaic nature to improve their predictions of the consequences of climate change.
The scientists are analysing the striking sunsets painted by Turner and dozens of other artists to work out the cooling effects of huge volcanic eruptions. By working out how the climate varied naturally in the past they hope to improve the computer models used to simulate global warming.
Writing in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, the scientists say the redder sunsets seen in paintings "can be tentatively attributed to the volcanic events, and not to abnormalities in the colour degradation due to age, or other random factors affecting each painter's colour perception".
This article was based on the paper
Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings
C. S. Zerefos, V. T. Gerogiannis, D. Balis, S. C. Zerefos, A. Kazantzidis
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 7, 5145-5172, 2007 Read the full article in ACP
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