Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance
Desert dust aerosols affect Earth's global energy balance through direct interactions with radiation, and through indirect interactions with clouds and ecosystems. But the magnitudes of these effects are so uncertain that it remains unclear whether atmospheric dust has a net warming or cooling...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Nature America, Inc
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125744 |
| _version_ | 1811080637520543744 |
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| author | Kok, Jasper F. Ridley, David Andrew Zhou, Qing Miller, Ron L. Zhao, Chun Heald, Colette L. Ward, Daniel S. Albani, Samuel Haustein, Karsten |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Kok, Jasper F. Ridley, David Andrew Zhou, Qing Miller, Ron L. Zhao, Chun Heald, Colette L. Ward, Daniel S. Albani, Samuel Haustein, Karsten |
| author_sort | Kok, Jasper F. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Desert dust aerosols affect Earth's global energy balance through direct interactions with radiation, and through indirect interactions with clouds and ecosystems. But the magnitudes of these effects are so uncertain that it remains unclear whether atmospheric dust has a net warming or cooling effect on global climate. Consequently, it is still uncertain whether large changes in atmospheric dust loading over the past century have slowed or accelerated anthropogenic climate change, or what the effects of potential future changes in dust loading will be. Here we present an analysis of the size and abundance of dust aerosols to constrain the direct radiative effect of dust. Using observational data on dust abundance, in situ measurements of dust optical properties and size distribution, and climate and atmospheric chemical transport model simulations of dust lifetime, we find that the dust found in the atmosphere is substantially coarser than represented in current global climate models. As coarse dust warms the climate, the global dust direct radiative effect is likely to be less cooling than the 1/40.4 W m2 estimated by models in a current global aerosol model ensemble. Instead, we constrain the dust direct radiative effect to a range between 0.48 and +0.20 W m 2, which includes the possibility that dust causes a net warming of the planet. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:34:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/125744 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:34:26Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | Springer Nature America, Inc |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1257442022-09-27T20:26:34Z Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance Kok, Jasper F. Ridley, David Andrew Zhou, Qing Miller, Ron L. Zhao, Chun Heald, Colette L. Ward, Daniel S. Albani, Samuel Haustein, Karsten Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Desert dust aerosols affect Earth's global energy balance through direct interactions with radiation, and through indirect interactions with clouds and ecosystems. But the magnitudes of these effects are so uncertain that it remains unclear whether atmospheric dust has a net warming or cooling effect on global climate. Consequently, it is still uncertain whether large changes in atmospheric dust loading over the past century have slowed or accelerated anthropogenic climate change, or what the effects of potential future changes in dust loading will be. Here we present an analysis of the size and abundance of dust aerosols to constrain the direct radiative effect of dust. Using observational data on dust abundance, in situ measurements of dust optical properties and size distribution, and climate and atmospheric chemical transport model simulations of dust lifetime, we find that the dust found in the atmosphere is substantially coarser than represented in current global climate models. As coarse dust warms the climate, the global dust direct radiative effect is likely to be less cooling than the 1/40.4 W m2 estimated by models in a current global aerosol model ensemble. Instead, we constrain the dust direct radiative effect to a range between 0.48 and +0.20 W m 2, which includes the possibility that dust causes a net warming of the planet. NASA (grant NN14AP38G) 2020-06-09T19:26:18Z 2020-06-09T19:26:18Z 2017-03 2016-12 2020-05-27T18:15:21Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1752-0908 1752-0894 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125744 Kok, Jasper F., et al. "Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance." Nature Geoscience 10 (2017) 274–278. en 10.1038/NGEO2912 Nature Geoscience 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 Springer Nature America, Inc arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Kok, Jasper F. Ridley, David Andrew Zhou, Qing Miller, Ron L. Zhao, Chun Heald, Colette L. Ward, Daniel S. Albani, Samuel Haustein, Karsten Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| title | Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| title_full | Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| title_fullStr | Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| title_full_unstemmed | Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| title_short | Smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| title_sort | smaller desert dust cooling effect estimated from analysis of dust size and abundance |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/125744 |
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