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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Aerosol and boundary-layer interactions and impact on air quality
Zhanqing Li,Zhanqing Li,Jianping Guo,Aijun Ding,Hong Liao,Jianjun Liu,Yele Sun,Tijian Wang,Huiwen Xue,Hongsheng Zhang,Bin Zhu +10 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the major advances in aerosol measurements, PBL processes and their interactions with each other through complex feedback mechanisms, and highlight the priorities for future studies.
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Recent advances in understanding secondary organic aerosol: Implications for global climate forcing
Manish Shrivastava,Christopher D. Cappa,Jiwen Fan,Allen H. Goldstein,Alex Guenther,Jose L. Jimenez,Chongai Kuang,Alexander Laskin,Scot T. Martin,Nga L. Ng,Tuukka Petäjä,Jeffrey R. Pierce,Philip J. Rasch,Pontus Roldin,John H. Seinfeld,John E. Shilling,James N. Smith,Joel A. Thornton,Rainer Volkamer,Jian Wang,Douglas R. Worsnop,Rahul A. Zaveri,Alla Zelenyuk,Qi Zhang +23 more
TL;DR: In this paper, a review summarizes some of the important developments during the past decade in understanding secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation, including formation of extremely low volatility organics in the gas phase, acid-catalyzed multiphase chemistry of isoprene epoxydiols, particle-phase oligomerization, and physical properties such as volatility and viscosity.
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Markedly enhanced absorption and direct radiative forcing of black carbon under polluted urban environments
Jianfei Peng,Min Hu,Song Guo,Zhuofei Du,Jing Zheng,Dongjie Shang,Misti L. Zamora,Limin Zeng,Min Shao,Yusheng Wu,Jun Zheng,Yuan Wang,Crystal R. Glen,Don R. Collins,Mario J. Molina,Renyi Zhang,Renyi Zhang +16 more
TL;DR: The results indicate that BC under polluted urban environments could contribute significantly to both pollution development and large positive radiative forcing, implying that reduction of BC emissions under polluted environments achieves a cobenefit in simultaneously controlling air pollution and protecting climate, especially for developing countries.
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Multiphase chemistry at the atmosphere-biosphere interface influencing climate and public health in the anthropocene.
Ulrich Pöschl,Manabu Shiraiwa +1 more
TL;DR: This work addresses air contaminants and their multiphase chemical interactions at the atmosphere−biosphere interface, including human lungs and skin, plant leaves, cryptogamic covers, soil, and aquatic surfaces, and the chemical interactions of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species, as well as carbonaceous combustion aerosols.
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Global anthropogenic emissions of particulate matter including black carbon
Zbigniew Klimont,Kaarle Kupiainen,Kaarle Kupiainen,Chris Heyes,Pallav Purohit,Janusz Cofala,Peter Rafaj,Jens Borken-Kleefeld,Wolfgang Schöpp +8 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a comprehensive assessment of global anthropogenic particulate matter (PM) emissions including the consistent and harmonized calculation of mass-based size distribution (PM1, PM2.5, PM10), as well as primary carbonaceous aerosols including black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC).
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