The new findings help to explain a significant part of the organic
mass of aerosol particles in the air, which had remained mysterious to the scientists so far.
The shorter the time span of the data record, the more difficult it is to separate systematic changes due to human activities such as greenhouse gas emissions and the production
of aerosol particles from natural variations.
These results imply that the chlorine activation
efficiency of the aerosol particles increases rapidly as the temperature approaches the ice frost point regardless of the phase or composition of the particles.
Researchers have now used the results for the first time to calculate the
production of aerosol particles in all the Earth's regions and at different heights.
Over land, the small
size of these aerosol particles tends to suppress rainfall because the water droplets that condense on them are light enough to remain aloft.
The new study shows that climate sensitivity to historical changes in the
abundance of aerosol particles in the atmosphere is larger than the sensitivity to CO2, primarily because the aerosols are largely located near industrialized areas in the Northern Hemisphere middle and high latitudes where they trigger more rapid land responses and strong snow & ice feedbacks.
[1][2](click for more detail) * green: black and organic carbon * red / orange: dust * white: sulfates * blue: sea salt Movie map of
distribution of aerosol particles, based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite.
He continues: «The overall effect
of aerosol particles of human origin on climate has been a cooling one during the last century, which has partially masked the warming caused by the increase in greenhouse gas emissions.»
Last year, Glory, a satellite belonging to US space agency NASA that would have measured the effect
of aerosol particles on the climate, was lost at launch: the latest in a string of failures.
Another massive undertaking, the Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), meanwhile, was specifically designed to see if climate forcing on the
part of aerosol particles could be directly measured.
Sophisticated microscopic instruments were used to look for iron - containing nanoscale particles — specifically locating them from
thousands of aerosol particles.
For example, we have built unique probes for real - time NMR studies of catalysts under operating conditions, single - particle laser ablation mass spectrometers for
analysis of aerosol particles, and the nanospray desorption electrospray ionization instrument for highly sensitive analysis of minute samples.
The CLOUD experiment consists of a large instrumented chamber in which the atmosphere can be precisely simulated, and the formation and
growth of aerosol particles and the clouds they seed can be studied under precisely controled atmospheric conditions.
This research is the first to connect a commercial CCN, with a CVI and mass spectrometers to study the
chemistry of aerosol particles that activate to cloud droplets.
It is shown that such photopolarimetric data are highly sensitive to the size distribution and refractive
index of aerosol particles, which reduces the nonuniqueness in aerosol retrievals using such data as compared with less comprehensive datasets.
First up is a collection of papers that describe the results of a several experiments looking into cloud formation — or rather, into the availability and
development of the aerosol particles that aid in cloud formation.
The sheer
variety of aerosol particle types and the fact that they stay in the atmosphere for just days to weeks, compared to years spent by greenhouse gases, means they are among the most challenging to understand and incorporate into climate models, said Redemann, which is why the data collected from the P - 3 aircraft measurements of aerosols and clouds are so important.
The cloud condensation nuclei counter measures the concentration
of aerosol particles by drawing an air sample through a column with thermodynamically unstable supersaturated water vapor that can condense onto aerosol particles.
PNNL is also an international leader in laboratory studies of atmospheric processes, with internationally recognized scientists using one - of - a-kind instruments to probe the fundamental
properties of aerosol particles and other components of the atmosphere.
She went on to do a chemistry Ph.D. at the Copenhagen Center for Atmospheric Research, where her adviser gave her free reign to pick her own project — as long as it used a shiny new piece of equipment that measures the
efficiency of aerosol particles to seed cloud droplets.
The new study shows that climate sensitivity to historical changes in the
abundance of aerosol particles in the atmosphere is larger than the sensitivity to CO2, primarily because the aerosols are largely located near industrialized areas in the Northern Hemisphere middle and high latitudes where they trigger more rapid land responses and strong snow & ice feedbacks.
It is found that with a number
concentration of aerosol particles of ∼ 102 — 103 cm − 3 (which corresponds to the aerosol density in the deposited layer of about 1 — 10 mg / m2 with the layer thickness along the ray path of about 100 m) the solar radiation attenuation with artificial aerosol layers accounts for 1 to 10 %.