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Nature communications
11 27, 2019;10 (1): 5405.

Analysis of polarimetric satellite measurements suggests stronger cooling due to aerosol-cloud interactions.

Otto P Hasekamp, Edward Gryspeerdt, Johannes Quaas
Author Information
  1. Otto P Hasekamp: SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA, Utrecht, The Netherlands. O.Hasekamp@sron.nl. ORCID
  2. Edward Gryspeerdt: Space and Atmospheric Physics Group, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, UK. ORCID
  3. Johannes Quaas: Universität Leipzig, Institute for Meteorology, Stephanstr. 3, D-04103, Leipzig, Germany. ORCID
PMID: 31776336 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-13372-2

Abstract

Anthropogenic aerosol emissions lead to an increase in the amount of cloud condensation nuclei and consequently an increase in cloud droplet number concentration and cloud albedo. The corresponding negative radiative forcing due to aerosol cloud interactions (RF[Formula: see text]) is one of the most uncertain radiative forcing terms as reported in the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Here we show that previous observation-based studies underestimate aerosol-cloud interactions because they used measurements of aerosol optical properties that are not directly related to cloud formation and are hampered by measurement uncertainties. We have overcome this problem by the use of new polarimetric satellite retrievals of the relevant aerosol properties (aerosol number, size, shape). The resulting estimate of RF[Formula: see text] = -1.14 Wm[Formula: see text] (range between -0.84 and -1.72 Wm[Formula: see text]) is more than a factor 2 stronger than the IPCC estimate that includes also other aerosol induced changes in cloud properties.

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Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Article has an altmetric score of 73

Word Cloud

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