Unmasking the Effects of Aerosols on Greenhouse Warming Over Europe

Abstract

An energy balance for the Earth is established when incoming solar energy absorbed by the planet (Earth-atmosphere system) is balanced by an equal amount of reflected solar radiation and emitted thermal infrared radiation (Liou, 2002). The Earth's climate system is however perturbed (SPM A.1.2 in IPCC, 2021); global surface mean temperature was 1.09°C (0.95-1.20)°C higher in 2011-2020 than 1850-1900, with larger increases over land (1.59°C [1.34-1.83]°C) than over the oceans (0.88°C [0.68-1.01]°C). This is mainly attributed to an enhanced greenhouse effect, with more of infrared radiation being trapped by anthropogenic greenhouse gases (GHGs,

Modelling electricity demand in Karachi: historical trends, determinants, and future scenarios

“…The past four decades have seen a rising trend in temperature and declining trend in humidity on average. Consequently, the average monthly temperature has risen from 25.6°C to 26.8°C, which is faster than the global temperature rise of around 0.7°C in the same period but in line with that experienced in populated regions in Europe [13]. Fig.…”

The Climate Change Crisis: A Review of Its Causes and Possible Responses

“…It has been understood for some time that anthropogenic aerosols are co-emitted with GHGs during the combustion of fossil fuels, and it has been posited that they are masking the warming due to GHGs to some degree [91]. Because of the short atmospheric residence time of aerosols in the troposphere, and the adoption of more stringent air pollution standards (especially in Europe), the decline in anthropogenic aerosol concentration may be removing a significant cooling effect that has masked the underlying GHG warming [92][93][94].…”