Air Pollution, Aerosols and Clouds in the Climate System

In recent years, the role of atmospheric aerosols is being increasingly recognized both in climate system of Earth and in global biogeochemical cycle. Aerosols affect the radiative balance of the Earth directly by scattering or absorbing incoming shortwave radiation and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei, altering a temperature effect at the surface because of changes in cloud cover. In addition, aerosol particles are closely coupled to atmospheric chemistry as chemical reactions in the atmosphere are often accelerated on aerosol surfaces. Also, the chemistry of aerosols may alter their physical and optical properties such as size distribution (fine to coarse) due to interaction between acidic (sulpahte, nitrate) and alkaline (mineral dust) aerosols; single scattering albedo (because of coating of one type of aerosols over other); and surface properties (hydrophilic/hydrophobic), and thus, their direct and indirect effects on climate change. Long range transport and depo...

Friends! I was looking for something important to write about aerosol and stumble upon this web-site. Absorption references : ... Ganguly,D., Jayaraman,A., Gadhavi,H., Rajesh,T., Features in wavelength dependence of aerosol absorption observed over central India, Geophys.Res.Lett., Vol.32, L13821, doi:10.1029/2005GL023023, 2005. Moorthy,K., Satheesh,S., Babu,S., Saha,A., Large latitudinal gradients and temporal heterogeneity in aerosol black carbon and its mass mixing ratio over southern and northern oceans observed during a trans-contiental cruise experiment, Geophys.Res.Lett., Vol.32, L14818, doi:10.1029/2005GL023267, 2005. Wang,G., Bai,J., Kong,Q., Emilenko,A., Black carbon particles in the urban atmosphere in Beijing, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, Vol.22, No.5, pp.640-646, 2005." ... Well well! you got it! I was doing ego search and found out this web-site. Nevertheless my first statement remains true. This web-page contains well organized and exhaustive list of references...

Atmospheric aerosols or particulate matter (PM) are one of the most important components of the earth-atmosphere system and play important role in climate and weather related processes. Apart from climate, aerosols also have an impact on entire living biota on planet earth. Impact of air pollution on human health is of most concern in current time. Air pollution has both short-term and long-term effects. Short terms impacts includes, respiratory infections, irritation to the eyes, nose and throat, headaches, nausea, and allergic reactions. Short-term air pollution can intensify the medical conditions of individuals with asthma and emphysema. In 1952 London experienced one of the worst smog disasters, which killed more than four thousand people in few days due to very high concentration of particulate matter in the air. Long-term effects incl ude lung cancer, heart disease, chronic respiratory disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Continual contact to air po...

Atmospheric Aerosols: What Are They, and Why Are They So Important More often than not, we (researchers in atmospheric aerosol field) have to answer questions from laymen about atmospheric aerosols such as what are they made up, how are they produced and removed, what is their importance in atmospheric research, etc. If you have ever faced difficulty answering these questions above web-site is for you. Explanations are very simple with nice pictures and without any technical jargon.