Scientists from the National University of Ireland at Galway are leading one of the world's largest studies into how microscopic marine plants might affect the earth's climate.
The project aims to find out how dense blooms of tiny plankton in the ocean might enrich bursting bubbles at the surface with organic matter, leading to more stable clouds above the ocean and decreasing global warming.
The Marine Aerosol Production (MAP) project has a total budget of €3 million and is co-ordinated by Dr Colin O'Dowd from the Environmental Change Institute and Department of Physics at NUI Galway.
MAP will use NUI Galway's Mace Head Atmospheric Monitoring Station in Co Galway, the Marine Institute's research vessel RV Celtic Explorerand NASA's satellite sensors to make the required observations.
The project has assembled a team of 25 research groups from 20 institutes in Europe and the United States.
They will spend four weeks making measurements at Mace Head and on the Celtic Explorerand the next two years analysing the gathered data, before putting the key findings into climate prediction models.
"Aerosol particles form haze and cloud layers that can hide the effect of global warming," said Dr O'Dowd.
"Quantifying the sources of aerosols and their global cooling effects will enable better future controls on greenhouse gas emissions in order to reduce the rate of global warming."
Marine Institute chief executive Dr Peter Heffernan said the project highlights the strategic importance of Ireland as a natural laboratory for studying the dynamics and impacts of climate change.