Black carbon aerosol plays a unique and important role in Earth's climate system. Black carbon is a type of carbonaceous material with a unique combination of physical properties. This assessment provides an evaluation of black-carbon climate forcing that is comprehensive in its inclusion of all known and relevant processes and that is quantitative in providing best estimates and uncertainties of the main forcing terms: direct solar absorption; influence on liquid, mixed phase, and ice clouds; and deposition on snow and ice. These effects are calculated with climate models, but when possible, they are evaluated with both microphysical measurements and field observations. Predominant sources are combustion related, namely, fossil fuels for transportation, solid fuels for industrial and residential uses, and open burning of biomass. Total global emissions of black carbon using bottom-up inventory methods are 7500 Gg yr−1 in the year 2000 with an uncertainty range of 2000 to 29000. However, global atmospheric absorption attributable to black carbon is too low in many models and should be increased by a factor of almost 3. After this scaling, the best estimate for the industrial-era (1750 to 2005) direct radiative forcing of atmospheric black carbon is +0.71 W m−2 with 90% uncertainty bounds of (+0.08, +1.27) W m−2. Total direct forcing by all black carbon sources, without subtracting the preindustrial background, is estimated as +0.88 (+0.17, +1.48) W m−2. Direct radiative forcing alone does not capture important rapid adjustment mechanisms. A framework is described and used for quantifying climate forcings, including rapid adjustments. The best estimate of industrial-era climate forcing of black carbon through all forcing mechanisms, including clouds and cryosphere forcing, is +1.1 W m−2 with 90% uncertainty bounds of +0.17 to +2.1 W m−2. Thus, there is a very high probability that black carbon emissions, independent of co-emitted species, have a positive forcing and warm the climate. We estimate that black carbon, with a total climate forcing of +1.1 W m−2, is the second most important human emission in terms of its climate forcing in the present-day atmosphere; only carbon dioxide is estimated to have a greater forcing. Sources that emit black carbon also emit other short-lived species that may either cool or warm climate. Climate forcings from co-emitted species are estimated and used in the framework described herein. When the principal effects of short-lived co-emissions, including cooling agents such as sulfur dioxide, are included in net forcing, energy-related sources (fossil fuel and biofuel) have an industrial-era climate forcing of +0.22 (−0.50 to +1.08) W m−2 during the first year after emission. For a few of these sources, such as diesel engines and possibly residential biofuels, warming is strong enough that eliminating all short-lived emissions from these sources would reduce net climate forcing (i.e., produce cooling). When open burning emissions, which emit high levels of organic matter, are included in the total, the best estimate of net industrial-era climate forcing by all short-lived species from black-carbon-rich sources becomes slightly negative (−0.06 W m−2 with 90% uncertainty bounds of −1.45 to +1.29 W m−2). The uncertainties in net climate forcing from black-carbon-rich sources are substantial, largely due to lack of knowledge about cloud interactions with both black carbon and co-emitted organic carbon. In prioritizing potential black-carbon mitigation actions, non-science factors, such as technical feasibility, costs, policy design, and implementation feasibility play important roles. The major sources of black carbon are presently in different stages with regard to the feasibility for near-term mitigation. This assessment, by evaluating the large number and complexity of the associated physical and radiative processes in black-carbon climate forcing, sets a baseline from which to improve future climate forcing estimates.

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Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: A scientific assessment

1: Magnetic Particles: Preparation, Properties and Applications: M. Ozaki. 2: Maghemite (gamma-Fe2O3): A Versatile Magnetic Colloidal Material C.J. Serna, M.P. Morales. 3: Dynamics of Adsorption and Oxidation of Organic Molecules on Illuminated Titanium Dioxide Particles Immersed in Water M.A. Blesa, R.J. Candal, S.A. Bilmes. 4: Colloidal Aggregation in Two-Dimensions A. Moncho-Jorda, F. Martinez-Lopez, M.A. Cabrerizo-Vilchez, R. Hidalgo Alvarez, M. Quesada-PMerez. 5: Kinetics of Particle and Protein Adsorption Z. Adamczyk.

Surface and Colloid Science

This paper reviews the many developments in estimates of the direct and indirect global annual mean radiative forcing due to present-day concentra- tions of anthropogenic tropospheric aerosols since Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change (1996). The range of estimates of the global mean direct radiative forcing due to six distinct aerosol types is presented. Addition- ally, the indirect effect is split into two components corresponding to the radiative forcing due to modifica- tion of the radiative properties of clouds (cloud albedo effect) and the effects of anthropogenic aerosols upon the lifetime of clouds (cloud lifetime effect). The radia- tive forcing for anthropogenic sulphate aerosol ranges from 20.26 to 20.82 W m 22 . For fossil fuel black carbon the radiative forcing ranges from 10.16 W m 22 for an external mixture to 10.42 W m 22 for where the black carbon is modeled as internally mixed with sulphate aerosol. For fossil fuel organic carbon the two estimates of the likely weakest limit of the direct radiative forcing are 20.02 and 20.04 W m 22 . For biomass-burning sources of black carbon and organic carbon the com-

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/1999RG000078

Estimates of the direct and indirect radiative forcing due to tropospheric aerosols: A review

Our current understanding of mechanisms that are, or may be, acting to cause climate change over the past century is briefly reviewed, with an emphasis on those due to human activity. The paper discusses the general level of confidence in these estimates and areas of remaining uncertainty. The effects of increases in the so-called well-mixed greenhouse gases, and in particular carbon dioxide, appear to be the dominant mechanism. However, there are considerable uncertainties in our estimates of many other forcing mechanisms; those associated with the so-called indirect aerosol forcing (whereby changes in aerosols can impact on cloud properties) may be the most serious, as its climatic effect may be of a similar size as, but opposite sign to, that due to carbon dioxide. The possible role of volcanic eruptions as a natural climate change mechanism is also highlighted.

/pdf/radiative-forcing-of-climate-change-7is7s1hlyy.pdf

Radiative forcing of climate change

For open ocean and coastal waters, a multiband quasi-analytical algorithm is developed to retrieve absorption and backscattering coefficients, as well as absorption coefficients of phytoplankton pigments and gelbstoff. This algorithm is based on remote-sensing reflectance models derived from the radiative transfer equation, and values of total absorption and backscattering coefficients are analytically calculated from values of remote-sensing reflectance. In the calculation of total absorption coefficient, no spectral models for pigment and gelbstoff absorption coefficients are used. Actually those absorption coefficients are spectrally decomposed from the derived total absorption coefficient in a separate calculation. The algorithm is easy to understand and simple to implement. It can be applied to data from past and current satellite sensors, as well as to data from hyperspectral sensors. There are only limited empirical relationships involved in the algorithm, and they are for less important properties, which implies that the concept and details of the algorithm could be applied to many data for oceanic observations. The algorithm is applied to simulated data and field data, both non-case1, to test its performance, and the results are quite promising. More independent tests with field-measured data are desired to validate and improve this algorithm.

/pdf/deriving-inherent-optical-properties-from-water-color-a-4gmos8ca0n.pdf

Deriving inherent optical properties from water color: a multiband quasi-analytical algorithm for optically deep waters

The mechanics of uncemented soft sediments during bubble growth are not widely understood and no rheological model has found wide acceptance. We offer definitive evidence on the mode of bubble formation in the form of X-ray computed tomographic images and comparison with theory. Natural and injected bubbles in muddy cohesive sediments are shown to be highly eccentric oblate spheroids (disks) that grow either by fracturing the sediment or by reopening preexisting fractures. In contrast, bubbles in soft sandy sediment tend to be spherical, suggesting that sand acts fluidly or plastically in response to growth stresses. We also present bubble-rise results from gelatin, a mechanically similar but transparent medium, that suggest that initial rise is also accomplished by fracture. Given that muddy sediments are elastic and yield by fracture, it becomes much easier to explain physically related phenomena such as seafloor pockmark formation, animal burrowing, and gas buildup during methane hydrate melting.

https://www7430.nrlssc.navy.mil/facilities/CTScanner/GEOLOGY_Bubbles.pdf

Bubble growth and rise in soft sediments

Two models have been proposed to account for gas exchang between the atmosphere and the oceans: one involves direct transport of the gas through a surface boundary layer1; the other also includes a substantial enhancement of the gas flux due to bubbles formed by breaking waves2,3. In a long time-series of dissolved oxygen measurements, Wallace and Wirick4 observed sharply increased fluxes that seemed to be associated with wave activity. But the lack of vertical resolution meant that they could not rule out water advection and entrapment, rather than bubble-mediated air injection, as the cause of the increased flux. They were also unable to calculate transfer coefficients. Here we report simultaneous in situ observations from a vertical array of dissolved-gas sensors and a variety of other instruments during a single storm event. Our results confirm the importance of bubbles for the gas-transfer process. They also imply that existing transfer coefficients underestimate the transfer of weakly soluble gases during periods of bubble penetration.

Evidence for the importance of bubbles in increasing air–sea gas flux

Bubbles of less than 1 micrometer and as large as 13.5 micrometers in diameter, stabilized by an apparent compression of substances sorbed onto their surfaces, were examined to determine their physical and temporal stability. Their ease of formation is related to the qualities of the water in which they are formed. Their presence in the water column must now be considered when interpreting acoustic data gathered to determine marine bubble populations.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/213/4504/209.full.pdf

Generation of stabilized microbubbles in seawater.

Until now, the analysis of burrowing mechanics has neglected the mechanical properties of impeding, muddy, cohesive sediments, which behave like elastic solids. Here we show that burrowers can progress through such sediments by using a mechanically efficient, previously unsuspected mechanism--crack propagation--in which an alternating 'anchor' system of burrowing serves as a wedge to extend the crack-shaped burrow. The force required to propagate cracks through sediment in this way is relatively small: we find that the force exerted by the annelid worm Nereis virens in making and moving into such a burrow amounts to less than one-tenth of the force it needs to use against rigid aquarium walls.

Burrowing mechanics: burrow extension by crack propagation.

The scattering and backscattering properties of bubble populations in the upper ocean are estimated with Mie theory and a generalized bubble size spectrum based on in situ observations. Optical properties of both clean bubbles and bubbles coated with an organic film are analyzed; the results are compared with the corresponding optical properties of micro-organisms of similar size. Given a bubble number density (from ~10(5) to ~10(7) m(-3)) frequently found at sea, the bubble populations significantly influence the scattering process in the ocean, especially in oligotrophic waters. Bubbles appear to make a large contribution to the missing terms in constructing the observed total backscattering coefficient of the ocean. This contribution to backscattering is strongly enhanced if the bubbles are coated with organic film. The injection of bubbles will shift ocean color toward the green, resembling phytoplankton blooms, and hence introducing error in ocean color remote sensing if its effect is not corrected.

Bruce D. Johnson

Papers

Bubble growth and rise in soft sediments

Evidence for the importance of bubbles in increasing air–sea gas flux

Generation of stabilized microbubbles in seawater.

Burrowing mechanics: burrow extension by crack propagation.

Influence of bubbles on scattering of light in the ocean