Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires
Open-burning fires play an important role in the earth's climate system. In addition to contributing a substantial fraction of global emissions of carbon dioxide, they are a major source of atmospheric aerosols containing organic carbon, black carbon, and sulfate. These “fire aerosols” can infl...
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| Format: | Article |
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Copernicus GmbH
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109991 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3979-4747 |
| _version_ | 1826199607332306944 |
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| author | Grandey, Benjamin S. Lee, Hsiang-He Wang, Chien |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Global Change Science |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Global Change Science Grandey, Benjamin S. Lee, Hsiang-He Wang, Chien |
| author_sort | Grandey, Benjamin S. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Open-burning fires play an important role in the earth's climate system. In addition to contributing a substantial fraction of global emissions of carbon dioxide, they are a major source of atmospheric aerosols containing organic carbon, black carbon, and sulfate. These “fire aerosols” can influence the climate via direct and indirect radiative effects. In this study, we investigate these radiative effects and the hydrological fast response using the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Emissions of fire aerosols exert a global mean net radiative effect of −1.0 W m[superscript −2], dominated by the cloud shortwave response to organic carbon aerosol. The net radiative effect is particularly strong over boreal regions. Conventionally, many climate modelling studies have used an interannually invariant monthly climatology of emissions of fire aerosols. However, by comparing simulations using interannually varying emissions vs. interannually invariant emissions, we find that ignoring the interannual variability of the emissions can lead to systematic overestimation of the strength of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols. Globally, the overestimation is +23 % (−0.2 W m[superscript −2]). Regionally, the overestimation can be substantially larger. For example, over Australia and New Zealand the overestimation is +58 % (−1.2 W m[superscript −2]), while over Boreal Asia the overestimation is +43 % (−1.9 W m[superscript −2]). The systematic overestimation of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols is likely due to the non-linear influence of aerosols on clouds. However, ignoring interannual variability in the emissions does not appear to significantly impact the hydrological fast response. In order to improve understanding of the climate system, we need to take into account the interannual variability of aerosol emissions. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:22:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109991 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:22:55Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Copernicus GmbH |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1099912022-09-27T19:09:56Z Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires Grandey, Benjamin S. Lee, Hsiang-He Wang, Chien Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Global Change Science Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Wang, Chien Open-burning fires play an important role in the earth's climate system. In addition to contributing a substantial fraction of global emissions of carbon dioxide, they are a major source of atmospheric aerosols containing organic carbon, black carbon, and sulfate. These “fire aerosols” can influence the climate via direct and indirect radiative effects. In this study, we investigate these radiative effects and the hydrological fast response using the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Emissions of fire aerosols exert a global mean net radiative effect of −1.0 W m[superscript −2], dominated by the cloud shortwave response to organic carbon aerosol. The net radiative effect is particularly strong over boreal regions. Conventionally, many climate modelling studies have used an interannually invariant monthly climatology of emissions of fire aerosols. However, by comparing simulations using interannually varying emissions vs. interannually invariant emissions, we find that ignoring the interannual variability of the emissions can lead to systematic overestimation of the strength of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols. Globally, the overestimation is +23 % (−0.2 W m[superscript −2]). Regionally, the overestimation can be substantially larger. For example, over Australia and New Zealand the overestimation is +58 % (−1.2 W m[superscript −2]), while over Boreal Asia the overestimation is +43 % (−1.9 W m[superscript −2]). The systematic overestimation of the net radiative effect of the fire aerosols is likely due to the non-linear influence of aerosols on clouds. However, ignoring interannual variability in the emissions does not appear to significantly impact the hydrological fast response. In order to improve understanding of the climate system, we need to take into account the interannual variability of aerosol emissions. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AGS-1339264) United States. Department of Energy (DE-FG02-94ER61937) United States. Environmental Protection Agency (XA-83600001-1) 2017-06-16T21:51:36Z 2017-06-16T21:51:36Z 2016-11 2016-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1680-7324 1680-7316 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109991 Grandey, Benjamin S., Hsiang-He Lee, and Chien Wang. “Radiative Effects of Interannually Varying Vs. Interannually Invariant Aerosol Emissions from Fires.” Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16, no. 22 (November 23, 2016): 14495–14513. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3979-4747 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14495-2016 Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Copernicus GmbH Copernicus Publications |
| spellingShingle | Grandey, Benjamin S. Lee, Hsiang-He Wang, Chien Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| title | Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| title_full | Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| title_fullStr | Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| title_full_unstemmed | Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| title_short | Radiative effects of interannually varying vs. interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| title_sort | radiative effects of interannually varying vs interannually invariant aerosol emissions from fires |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109991 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3979-4747 |
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