Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: A scientific assessment
Tami C. Bond,Sarah J. Doherty,David W. Fahey,Piers M. Forster,Terje Koren Berntsen,Benjamin DeAngelo,Mark Flanner,Steven J. Ghan,Bernd Kärcher,Dorothy Koch,Stefan Kinne,Yutaka Kondo,Patricia K. Quinn,Marcus C. Sarofim,Martin G. Schultz,Michael Schulz,Chandra Venkataraman,Hua Zhang,Shiqiu Zhang,Nicolas Bellouin,Sarath K. Guttikunda,Philip K. Hopke,Mark Z. Jacobson,Johannes W. Kaiser,Zbigniew Klimont,Ulrike Lohmann,Joshua P. Schwarz,Drew Shindell,Trude Storelvmo,Stephen G. Warren,Charles S. Zender +30 more
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TLDR
In this paper, the authors provided an assessment 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.Abstract:
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.read more
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Carbon isotope‐constrained seasonality of carbonaceous aerosol sources from an urban location (Kanpur) in the Indo‐Gangetic Plain
Srinivas Bikkina,August Andersson,Kirpa Ram,Kirpa Ram,Manmohan Sarin,Rebecca J. Sheesley,Elena N. Kirillova,Ramabadran Rengarajan,A. K. Sudheer,Örjan Gustafsson +9 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors presented a first data set for year-round radiocarbon (Δ14C) and stable carbon (δ13C)-based source apportionment of total carbon (TC) in ambient PM10 (n = 17) collected from an urban site (Kanpur: 26.5°N, 80.3°E) during January 2007 to January 2008.
Journal ArticleDOI
Changes from traditional solid fuels to clean household energies - opportunities in emission reduction of primary PM2.5 from residential cookstoves in China.
TL;DR: In this article, a compilation of data from emission measurements of Chinese cookstove in literature was used to compare primary PM 2.5 emissions for different fuels, and the average emissions per useful energy delivered were 0.10 and 0.28 for anthracite briquette and chunk, respectively.
Journal ArticleDOI
Technique and theoretical approach for quantifying the hygroscopicity of black-carbon-containing aerosol using a single particle soot photometer
Joshua P. Schwarz,Joshua P. Schwarz,Anne E. Perring,Anne E. Perring,M. Z. Markovic,M. Z. Markovic,Ru-Shan Gao,Sho Ohata,J. Langridge,D. Law,D. Law,R. J. McLaughlin,R. J. McLaughlin,David W. Fahey,David W. Fahey +14 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a single particle soot photometer (SP2) was modified to include a compact humidification system, which allowed quantification of water uptake by BC-containing particles.
Journal ArticleDOI
Smoke aerosol chemistry and aging of Siberian biomass burning emissions in a large aerosol chamber
Athina-Cerise Kalogridis,Olga Popovicheva,Guenter Engling,Evangelia Diapouli,Kimitaka Kawamura,Kimitaka Kawamura,Eri Tachibana,Kaori Ono,V. S. Kozlov,Konstantinos Eleftheriadis +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, a series of burn experiments were conducted with typical Siberian biomass (pine and debris), simulating separately different combustion conditions, namely, flaming, smoldering and mixed phase.
Journal ArticleDOI
Measurement and analysis of black carbon aerosols over a tropical semi-arid station in Kadapa, India
G. Reshma Begam,C. Viswanath Vachaspati,Y. Nazeer Ahammed,K. Raghavendra Kumar,S. Suresh Babu,R. Ramakrishna Reddy +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present aerosol light absorption measurements using a seven channel Aethalometer (AE-42), recorded during September 2011-November 2012 over a tropical semi-arid site in Kadapa, India.
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