Abstract. This paper reviews the many developments in estimates of the direct and indirect global annual mean radiative forcing due to present-day concentrations of anthropogenic tropospheric aerosols since Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [1996]. The range of estimates of the global mean direct radiative forcing due to six distinct aerosol types is presented. Additionally, the indirect effect is split into two components corresponding to the radiative forcing due to modification of the radiative properties of clouds (cloud albedo effect) and the effects of anthropogenic aerosols upon the lifetime of clouds (cloud lifetime effect). The radiative forcing for anthropogenic sulphate aerosol ranges Although the cloud lifetime effect is identified as a potentially important climate forcing mechanism, it is difficult to quantify in the context of the present definition of radiative forcing of climate change and current model simulations. This is because its estimation by general circulation models necessarily includes some level of cloud and water vapor feedbacks, which affect the hydrological cycle and the dynamics of the atmosphere. Available models predict that the radiative flux perturbation associated with the cloud lifetime effect is of a magnitude similar to that of the cloud albedo effect.
[1] The latest Hadley Centre climate model, HadGEM2-ES, includes Earth system components such as interactive chemistry and eight species of tropospheric aerosols. It has been run for the period 1860-2100 in support of the fifth phase of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Anthropogenic aerosol emissions peak between 1980 and 2020, resulting in a present-day all-sky top of the atmosphere aerosol forcing of −1.6 and −1.4 W m −2 with and without ammonium nitrate aerosols, respectively, for the sum of direct and first indirect aerosol forcings. Aerosol forcing becomes significantly weaker in the 21st century, being weaker than −0.5 W m −2 in 2100 without nitrate. However, nitrate aerosols become the dominant species in Europe and Asia and decelerate the decrease in global mean aerosol forcing. Considering nitrate aerosols makes aerosol radiative forcing 2-4 times stronger by 2100 depending on the representative concentration pathway, although this impact is lessened when changes in the oxidation properties of the atmosphere are accounted for. Anthropogenic aerosol residence times increase in the future in spite of increased precipitation, as cloud cover and aerosol-cloud interactions decrease in tropical and midlatitude regions. Deposition of fossil fuel black carbon onto snow and ice surfaces peaks during the 20th century in the Arctic and Europe but keeps increasing in the Himalayas until the middle of the 21st century. Results presented here confirm the importance of aerosols in influencing the Earth's climate, albeit with a reduced impact in the future, and suggest that nitrate aerosols will partially replace sulphate aerosols to become an important anthropogenic species in the remainder of the 21st century.
Carbonaceous soot within the troposphere can significantly modify the clear‐sky radiative forcing. Using an extension to a simple radiation calculation and two model‐derived sulfate aerosol data sets, the impact of an assumed soot/sulfate mass ratio of between 0.05 and 0.1 is examined. Fossil fuel derived soot causes a positive global‐mean radiative forcing which for one data set ranges from +0.03 to +0.24Wm−2; the lower estimate is for an external mixture with a soot/sulfate ratio of 0.05 and the upper estimate is for an internal mixture and a soot/sulfate ratio of 0.10. These values compare to a global‐mean radiative forcing of −0.34Wm−2 due to sulfate aerosol. Soot also significantly reduces the interhemispherical difference in the radiative forcing due to sulfate aerosol. The nature and amount of soot must be well established if the climatic role of tropospheric aerosols is to be fully understood.
[1] Solar geoengineering-deliberate reduction in the amount of solar radiation retained by the Earth-has been proposed as a means of counteracting some of the climatic effects of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. We present results from Experiment G1 of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project, in which 12 climate models have simulated the climate response to an abrupt quadrupling of CO 2 from preindustrial concentrations brought into radiative balance via a globally uniform reduction in insolation. Models show this reduction largely offsets global mean surface temperature increases due to quadrupled CO 2 concentrations and prevents 97% of the Arctic sea ice loss that would otherwise occur under high CO 2 levels but, compared to the preindustrial climate, leaves the tropics cooler (À0.3 K) and the poles warmer (+0.8 K). Annual mean precipitation minus evaporation anomalies for G1 are less than 0.2 mm day À1 in magnitude over 92% of the globe, but some tropical regions receive less precipitation, in part due to increased moist static stability and suppression of convection. Global average net primary productivity increases by 120% in G1 over simulated preindustrial levels, primarily from CO 2 fertilization, but also in part due to reduced plant heat stress compared to a high CO 2 world with no geoengineering. All models show that uniform solar geoengineering in G1 cannot simultaneously return regional and global temperature and hydrologic cycle intensity to preindustrial levels.
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