December 03, 2008

Europe\'s most polluted area is German steel and coal belt

According to a new report by Bremen University scientists published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion, a strip of land between Amsterdam and Frankfurt, home to the Germany’s steel and coal industries clam the continent's most polluted area.

According to the journal this small region of Western Germany has Europe's highest concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

As reported in Deutsche Welle, the scientists used a novel technology called SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Cartography), to detect levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The unique device was built by the German Aerospace Center and has been in orbit on a satellite around the Earth since 2002.

SCIAMACHY is able to detect carbon dioxide by measuring the amount of sunlight reflected from the atmosphere; different gases reflect light differently so the scientists were able to accurately pinpoint carbon dioxide's signal.