Aerosol Characterization and Process Studies - Improving the Calculated Climate Forcing by Aerosol Particles

摘要

There is substantial uncertainty in the magnitude and spatial distribution of the radiative forcing by aerosols. This uncertainty significantly limits our ability to assess the effect of natural and human induced changes in the chemistry of the atmosphere on global climate. Reducing thses uncertainties requires further development of chemical transport models to produce global aerosol distributions, clear and cloudy sky radiative transfer models to calculate the radiative effects of aerosols, and climate system models to study the interaction of aerosol particles within the integrated climate system. Radiative transfer models require values for aerosol optical properties such as the light scattering efficiency per unit mass (alpha_(sp)), the upward scattered fraction (beta) or asymmetry factor (g), the fraction of light scattered versus that absorbed or single scattering albedo (omega_o) and the dependence of scattering by the aerosol on relative humidity (f_(sp)(RH)).