Scott, CE orcid.org/0000-0002-0187-969X, Arnold, SR orcid.org/0000-0002-4881-5685
, Monks, SA et al. (3 more authors)
(2018)
Substantial large-scale feedbacks between natural aerosols and climate.
Nature Geoscience, 11.
pp. 44-48.
ISSN 1752-0894
Abstract
The terrestrial biosphere is an important source of natural aerosol. Natural aerosol sources alter climate, but are also strongly controlled by climate, leading to the potential for natural aerosol–climate feedbacks. Here we use a global aerosol model to make an assessment of terrestrial natural aerosol–climate feedbacks, constrained by observations of aerosol number. We find that warmer-than-average temperatures are associated with higher-than-average number concentrations of large (>100 nm diameter) particles, particularly during the summer. This relationship is well reproduced by the model and is driven by both meteorological variability and variability in natural aerosol from biogenic and landscape fire sources. We find that the calculated extratropical annual mean aerosol radiative effect (both direct and indirect) is negatively related to the observed global temperature anomaly, and is driven by a positive relationship between temperature and the emission of natural aerosol. The extratropical aerosol–climate feedback is estimated to be −0.14 W m−2 K−1 for landscape fire aerosol, greater than the −0.03 W m−2 K−1 estimated for biogenic secondary organic aerosol. These feedbacks are comparable in magnitude to other biogeochemical feedbacks, highlighting the need for natural aerosol feedbacks to be included in climate simulations.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Nature Geoscience. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Atmospheric science; Climate change |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NERC NE/K015966/1 EU - European Union 641816 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 08 Dec 2017 11:29 |
Last Modified: | 04 May 2018 00:38 |
Published Version: | https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-017-0020-5 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41561-017-0020-5 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:125008 |