Aerosols heat up

摘要

Solid particles suspended in the atmosphere have long played second fiddle to greenhouse gases as agents of climate change. A study of atmospheric heating over the Indian Ocean could provoke a rethink.rnin the tourth assessment report ot the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released earlier this year, the effect on climate of aerosols — small, suspended particles of varying composition, size and shape — since the start of the industrial era was estimated to be about 20% of that of greenhouse gases. Aerosols are thought to have a cooling effect on the atmosphere, and therefore to have mitigated some of the expected global warming over this period.