(i) The testing of aerosol dispensers

Of note were refinements to export control lists, including the addition of specific aerosol sprayers suitable for dispersal of biological agents.

These trials involved munitions supplied by the Iraqi chemical weapons programme and an aerosol spray device modified specifically for the biological weapons programme.

However, some high priority scientific items were added to the program or scheduled sooner, such as flight of an additional Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) instrument in the year 2000 and the incorporation of a Landsat type instrument on the EOS AM 2 spacecraft (AM indicating a morning crossing time over the equator).

The method of attack (enclosing a virulent strain of the bacterium in letters mailed through the federal postal service) was highly effective in terms of publicity, but a major attack designed to cause a far greater number of casualties (for example by dispersing anthrax via an aerosol) would require a much higher degree of technology.

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, about a million tons of sulfur dioxide was pumped into the stratosphere, reacting with water to form a hazy layer that spread around the globe, and by scattering and absorbing incoming sunlight cooled the earth s surface for almost two years. We could mimic this effect through stratospheric aerosol insertion essentially launching material like sulfur dioxide or soot into the stratosphere.

When Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, about a million tons of sulfur dioxide was pumped into the stratosphere, reacting with water to form a hazy layer that spread around the globe, and by scattering and absorbing incoming sunlight cooled the earth s surface for almost two years. We could mimic this effect through stratospheric aerosol insertion essentially launching material like sulfur dioxide or soot into the stratosphere.

Much thicker coatings of aerosols at the lower ends of glaciers might explain the tendency in several glaciers, noted in the Indian report, to become narrower in the middle, forming two distinct parts. The slowdown in the retreat of the snout of glaciers could, therefore, be a consequence of the very rapid rise of human population in the hills and desertification caused by overgrazing purely local factors that boost aerosol levels.