Response of the climate system to atmospheric aerosols and greenhouse gases

Nature ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 369 (6483) ◽  
pp. 734-737 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. E. Taylor ◽  
J. E. Penner
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Climate System

Atmospheric aerosols versus greenhouse gases in the twenty-first century

2007 ◽  
Vol 365 (1856) ◽  
pp. 1915-1923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meinrat O Andreae
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
High Sensitivity ◽  
Regional Climate Change ◽  
Climate System ◽  
First Century ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Climate Protection

Looked at in a simplistic way, aerosols have counteracted the warming effects of greenhouse gases (GHG) over the past century. This has not only provided some ‘climate protection’, but also prevented the true magnitude of the problem from becoming evident. In particular, it may have resulted in an underestimation of the sensitivity of the climate system to the effect of GHG. Over the present century, the role of aerosols in opposing global warming will wane, as there are powerful policy reasons to reduce their emissions and their atmospheric lifetimes are short in contrast to those of the GHG. On the other hand, aerosols will continue to play a role in regional climate change, especially with regard to the water cycle. The end of significant climate protection by atmospheric aerosols, combined with the potentially very high sensitivity of the climate system, makes sharp and prompt reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, especially CO 2 , very urgent.

scholarly journals Climate Change and Aerosol Sciences

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Kehan Li
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Environmental Policy ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Environmental Policies ◽  
Modern Times

Climate change is of great importance in modern times and global warming is considered as a significant part of climate change. It is proved that human’s emissions such as greenhouse gases are one of the main sources of global warming (IPCC, 2018). Apart from greenhouse gases, there is another kind of matter being released in quantity via emissions from industries and transportations and playing an important role in global warming, which is aerosol. However, atmospheric aerosols have the net effect of cooling towards global warming. In this paper, climate change with respect to global warming is briefly introduced and the role of aerosols in the atmosphere is emphasized. Besides, properties of aerosols including dynamics and thermodynamics of aerosols as well as interactions with solar radiation are concluded. In the end, environmental policies and solutions are discussed. Keywords: Climate change, Global warming, Atmospheric aerosols, Particulate matter, Radiation, Environmental policy.

2. Atmospheric physics

2017 ◽  
pp. 20-48
Author(s):  
Paul I. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
Radiative Energy ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Atmospheric Physics ◽  
Emit Radiation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Earth’S Radiation Budget

Earth’s atmosphere is tied closely with the Sun. The Sun emits electromagnetic radiation at a wide range of wavelengths. Radiation is transported through the atmosphere by transmission, absorption, and scattering. ‘Atmospheric physics’ outlines the Earth’s radiation budget—the incoming and outgoing radiation, equilibrium between them, and departures from this equilibrium due to increasing levels of clouds, greenhouse gases, and atmospheric aerosols. It then describes the greenhouse gases that absorb and emit radiation and the thermodynamics of the atmosphere. The importance of water, the dominant atmospheric constituent responsible for the loss of radiative energy to space and hence atmospheric cooling, and the electrical energy stored in the atmosphere are also discussed.

scholarly journals Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (22) ◽  
pp. 14495-14513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin S. Grandey ◽  
Hsiang-He Lee ◽  
Chien Wang
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Interannual Variability ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Climate Modelling ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Radiative Effects ◽  
Modelling Studies ◽  
Aerosol Emissions

Abstract. Open-burning fires play an important role in the earth's climate system. In addition to contributing a substantial fraction of global emissions of carbon dioxide, they are a major source of atmospheric aerosols containing organic carbon, black carbon, and sulfate. These “fire aerosols” can influence the climate via direct and indirect radiative effects. In this study, we investigate these radiative effects and the hydrological fast response using the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Emissions of fire aerosols exert a global mean net radiative effect of −1.0 W m−2, dominated by the cloud shortwave response to organic carbon aerosol. The net radiative effect is particularly strong over boreal regions. Conventionally, many climate modelling studies have used an interannually invariant monthly climatology of emissions of fire aerosols. However, by comparing simulations using interannually varying emissions vs. interannually invariant emissions, we find that ignoring the interannual variability of the emissions can lead to systematic overestimation of the strength of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols. Globally, the overestimation is +23 % (−0.2 W m−2). Regionally, the overestimation can be substantially larger. For example, over Australia and New Zealand the overestimation is +58 % (−1.2 W m−2), while over Boreal Asia the overestimation is +43 % (−1.9 W m−2). The systematic overestimation of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols is likely due to the non-linear influence of aerosols on clouds. However, ignoring interannual variability in the emissions does not appear to significantly impact the hydrological fast response. In order to improve understanding of the climate system, we need to take into account the interannual variability of aerosol emissions.

scholarly journals Global warming and greenhouse gases

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dragoljub Belic
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Solar Irradiance ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Orbital Parameters ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Earth’S Climate

Global warming or Climate change refers to long-term fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, wind, and other elements of the Earth's climate system. Natural processes such as solar-irradiance variations, variations in the Earth's orbital parameters, and volcanic activity can produce variations in climate. The climate system can also be influenced by changes in the concentration of various gases in the atmosphere, which affect the Earth's absorption of radiation.

scholarly journals Radiative effects of inter-annually varying versus inter-annually invariant aerosol emissions from fires

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin S. Grandey ◽  
Hsiang-He Lee ◽  
Chien Wang
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Radiative Effect ◽  
Radiative Effects ◽  
Annual Variability ◽  
Community Atmosphere Model ◽  
Earth’S Climate ◽  
Aerosol Emissions

Abstract. Open-burning fires play an important role in the Earth's climate system. In addition to contributing a substantial fraction of global emissions of carbon dioxide, they are also a major source of atmospheric aerosols such as organic carbon, black carbon, and sulphate. These "fire aerosols" can influence the climate via both direct and indirect radiative effects. In this study, we investigate these radiative effects and the hydrological fast response using the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Emissions of fire aerosols exert a global mean net radiative effect of −1.0 W m−2, dominated by the cloud shortwave response to organic carbon aerosol. The net radiative effect is particularly strong over boreal regions. By comparing simulations using inter-annually varying versus inter-annually invariant emissions, we find that ignoring the inter-annual variability of the emissions can lead to systematic overestimation of the strength of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols. Globally, the overestimation is +23 % (−0.2 W m−2). Regionally, the overestimation can be substantially larger. For example, over Australia and New Zealand the overestimation is +58 % (−1.2 W m−2), while over Boreal Asia the overestimation is +43 % (−1.9 W m−2). The systematic overestimation of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols is likely due to the non-linear influence of aerosols on clouds. However, ignoring inter-annual variability in the emissions does not appear to significantly impact the hydrological fast response. In order to improve understanding of the climate system, we need to more accurately quantify the effects of aerosols, taking into account important characteristics such as inter-annual variability.

The Detection and Attribution of Climate Change Using an Ensemble of Opportunity

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 504-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
DáithíA. Stone ◽  
Myles R. Allen ◽  
Frank Selten ◽  
Michael Kliphuis ◽  
Peter A. Stott
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Initial Conditions ◽  
Climate System ◽  
Response Patterns ◽  
Sulfate Aerosols ◽  
Temporal Response ◽  
Climate System Model ◽  
Detection And Attribution

Abstract The detection and attribution of climate change in the observed record play a central role in synthesizing knowledge of the climate system. Unfortunately, the traditional method for detecting and attributing changes due to multiple forcings requires large numbers of general circulation model (GCM) simulations incorporating different initial conditions and forcing scenarios, and these have only been performed with a small number of GCMs. This paper presents an extension to the fingerprinting technique that permits the inclusion of GCMs in the multisignal analysis of surface temperature even when the required families of ensembles have not been generated. This is achieved by fitting a series of energy balance models (EBMs) to the GCM output in order to estimate the temporal response patterns to the various forcings. This methodology is applied to the very large Challenge ensemble of 62 simulations of historical climate conducted with the NCAR Community Climate System Model version 1.4 (CCSM1.4) GCM, as well as some simulations from other GCMs. Considerable uncertainty exists in the estimates of the parameters in fitted EBMs. Nevertheless, temporal response patterns from these EBMs are more reliable and the combined EBM time series closely mimics the GCM in the context of transient forcing. In particular, detection and attribution results from this technique appear self-consistent and consistent with results from other methods provided that all major forcings are included in the analysis. Using this technique on the Challenge ensemble, the estimated responses to changes in greenhouse gases, tropospheric sulfate aerosols, and stratospheric volcanic aerosols are all detected in the observed record, and the responses to the greenhouse gases and tropospheric sulfate aerosols are both consistent with the observed record without a scaling of the amplitude being required. The result is that the temperature difference of the 1996–2005 decade relative to the 1940–49 decade can be attributed to greenhouse gas emissions, with a partially offsetting cooling from sulfate emissions and little contribution from natural sources. The results support the viability of the new methodology as an extension to current analysis tools for the detection and attribution of climate change, which will allow the inclusion of many more GCMs. Shortcomings remain, however, and so it should not be considered a replacement to traditional techniques.

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