1932

Abstract

Aerosols are suspensions of solid and/or liquid particles in the atmosphere and modify atmospheric radiative fluxes and chemistry. Aerosols move mass from one part of the earth system to other parts of the earth system, thereby modifying biogeochemistry and the snow surface albedo. This paper reviews our understanding of the impacts of aerosols on climate through direct radiative changes, aerosol-cloud interactions (indirect effects), atmospheric chemistry, snow albedo, and land and ocean biogeochemistry. Aerosols play an important role in the preindustrial (natural) climate system and have been perturbed substantially over the anthropocene, often directly by human activity. The most important impacts of aerosols, in terms of climate forcing, are from the direct and indirect effects, with large uncertainties. Similarly large impacts of aerosols on land and ocean biogeochemistry have been estimated, but these have larger uncertainties.

Keyword(s): aerosolsclimate change
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-042009-094507
2011-11-21
2024-12-06
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-042009-094507
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-042009-094507
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error