To What Extent Do Aerosol Particles in the Atmosphere Mask the Effects of Greenhouse Gases?
Since the rise of industrialization more and more greenhouse gases are being emitted into the atmosphere and as a result the earth’s climate is warming. It is known that part of the temperature rise is balanced by aerosol particles in the atmosphere – partly also emitted by human activity. The extent of that balancing however is unknown. As BJORN B. STEVENS explains in this video, the researchers used a new approach to estimate how strong this effect actually is: they used a top down perspective and asked if the assumptions made in earlier studies are consistent with current observations. Their findings show that the cooling effect of aerosol particles is not as large as previously calculated. Most significantly, this means that we do not have to fear an increase of global warming due to cleaner air.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10237Researcher
Bjorn B. Stevens is Director of the Department for the Atmosphere in the Earth System, at Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and teaches at the University of Hamburg. Previously, Stevens was a Professor of Dynamic Meteorology at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA). Stevens has made major contributions to the research on atmospheric convection in the climate system. He was awarded the Clarence Leroy Meisinger Award of the American Meteorological Society, and is an associate fellow at various institutions, including the Alexander von Humboldt Society.
Original Publication
Rethinking the Lower Bound on Aerosol Radiative Forcing
Björn Stevens
Published in 2015