Evaluating multicomponent climate change mitigation strategies requires knowledge of the diverse direct and indirect effects of emissions. Methane, ozone, and aerosols are linked through atmospheric chemistry so that emissions of a single pollutant can affect several species. We calculated atmospheric composition changes, historical radiative forcing, and forcing per unit of emission due to aerosol and tropospheric ozone precursor emissions in a coupled composition-climate model. We found that gas-aerosol interactions substantially alter the relative importance of the various emissions. In particular, methane emissions have a larger impact than that used in current carbon-trading schemes or in the Kyoto Protocol. Thus, assessments of multigas mitigation policies, as well as any separate efforts to mitigate warming from short-lived pollutants, should include gas-aerosol interactions.
We present a description of the ModelE2 version of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) General Circulation Model (GCM) and the configurations used in the simulations performed for the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). We use six variations related to the treatment of the atmospheric composition, the calculation of aerosol indirect effects, and ocean model component. Specifically, we test the difference between atmospheric models that have noninteractive composition, where radiatively important aerosols and ozone are prescribed from precomputed decadal averages, and interactive versions where atmospheric chemistry and aerosols are calculated given decadally varying emissions. The impact of the first aerosol indirect effect on clouds is either specified using a simple tuning, or parameterized using a cloud microphysics scheme. We also use two dynamic ocean components: the Russell and HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) which differ significantly in their basic formulations and grid. Results are presented for the climatological means over the satellite era taken from transient simulations starting from the preindustrial (1850) driven by estimates of appropriate forcings over the 20th Century. Differences in base climate and variability related to the choice of ocean model are large, indicating an important structural uncertainty. The impact of interactive atmospheric composition on the climatology is relatively small except in regions such as the lower stratosphere, where ozone plays an important role, and the tropics, where aerosol changes affect the hydrological cycle and cloud cover. While key improvements over previous versions of the model are evident, these are not uniform across all metrics.
Emissions of air pollutants and their precursors determine regional air quality and can alter climate. Climate change can perturb the long-range transport, chemical processing, and local meteorology that influence air pollution. We review the implications of projected changes in methane (CH(4)), ozone precursors (O(3)), and aerosols for climate (expressed in terms of the radiative forcing metric or changes in global surface temperature) and hemispheric-to-continental scale air quality. Reducing the O(3) precursor CH(4) would slow near-term warming by decreasing both CH(4) and tropospheric O(3). Uncertainty remains as to the net climate forcing from anthropogenic nitrogen oxide (NO(x)) emissions, which increase tropospheric O(3) (warming) but also increase aerosols and decrease CH(4) (both cooling). Anthropogenic emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and non-CH(4) volatile organic compounds (NMVOC) warm by increasing both O(3) and CH(4). Radiative impacts from secondary organic aerosols (SOA) are poorly understood. Black carbon emission controls, by reducing the absorption of sunlight in the atmosphere and on snow and ice, have the potential to slow near-term warming, but uncertainties in coincident emissions of reflective (cooling) aerosols and poorly constrained cloud indirect effects confound robust estimates of net climate impacts. Reducing sulfate and nitrate aerosols would improve air quality and lessen interference with the hydrologic cycle, but lead to warming. A holistic and balanced view is thus needed to assess how air pollution controls influence climate; a first step towards this goal involves estimating net climate impacts from individual emission sectors. Modeling and observational analyses suggest a warming climate degrades air quality (increasing surface O(3) and particulate matter) in many populated regions, including during pollution episodes. Prior Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios (SRES) allowed unconstrained growth, whereas the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios assume uniformly an aggressive reduction, of air pollutant emissions. New estimates from the current generation of chemistry-climate models with RCP emissions thus project improved air quality over the next century relative to those using the IPCC SRES scenarios. These two sets of projections likely bracket possible futures. We find that uncertainty in emission-driven changes in air quality is generally greater than uncertainty in climate-driven changes. Confidence in air quality projections is limited by the reliability of anthropogenic emission trajectories and the uncertainties in regional climate responses, feedbacks with the terrestrial biosphere, and oxidation pathways affecting O(3) and SOA.
[1] We analyze present-day and future carbon monoxide (CO) simulations in 26 state-ofthe-art atmospheric chemistry models run to study future air quality and climate change. In comparison with near-global satellite observations from the MOPITT instrument and local surface measurements, the models show large underestimates of Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropical CO, while typically performing reasonably well elsewhere. The results suggest that year-round emissions, probably from fossil fuel burning in east Asia and seasonal biomass burning emissions in south-central Africa, are greatly underestimated in current inventories such as IIASA and EDGAR3.2. Variability among models is large, likely resulting primarily from intermodel differences in representations and emissions of nonmethane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs) and in hydrologic cycles, which affect OH and soluble hydrocarbon intermediates. Global mean projections of the 2030 CO response to emissions changes are quite robust. Global mean midtropospheric (500 hPa) CO increases by 12.6 ± 3.5 ppbv (16%) for the high-emissions (A2) scenario, by 1.7 ± 1.8 ppbv (2%) for the midrange (CLE) scenario, and decreases by 8.1 ± 2.3 ppbv (11%) for the low-emissions (MFR) scenario. Projected 2030 climate changes decrease global 500 hPa CO by 1.4 ± 1.4 ppbv. Local changes can be much larger. In response to climate change, substantial effects are seen in the tropics, but intermodel variability is quite large. The regional CO responses to emissions changes are robust across models, however. These range from decreases of 10-20 ppbv over much of the industrialized NH for the CLE scenario to CO increases worldwide and year-round under A2, with the 1 of 24 largest changes over central , southern Brazil (20-35 ppbv) and south and east Asia (30-70 ppbv). The trajectory of future emissions thus has the potential to profoundly affect air quality over most of the world's populated areas.Citation: Shindell, D. T., et al. (2006), Multimodel simulations of carbon monoxide: Comparison with observations and projected near-future changes,
) in an analysis of potential "dangerous anthropogenic interference" with climate.Detailed diagnostics for several of these simulations are available from the repository for IPCC runs (www-pcmdi.llnl. gov/ipcc/about_ipcc.php). Diagnostics for all of these runs, including convenient graphics, are available at data.giss.nasa.gov/ modelE/transient.Sect. 2 defines the climate model and summarizes principal known deficiencies. Sect. 3 defines time-dependent climate forcings and discusses uncertainties. Sect. 4 considers alternative ways of sampling the model's simulated temperature change for comparison with imperfect observations. Sect. 5 compares simulated and observed climate change for 880-2003, focusing on temperature change but including other climate variables. Sect. 6 summarizes the capabilities and limitations of the current simulations and suggests efforts that are needed to improve future capabilities. Climate Model Atmospheric ModelThe atmospheric model employed here is the 20-layer version of GISS modelE (2006) with 4°×5° horizontal resolution. This resolution is coarse, but use of second-order moments for numerical differencing improves the effective resolution for the transport of tracers. The model top is at 0. hPa. Minimal drag is applied in the stratosphere, as needed for numerical stability, without gravity wave modeling. Stratospheric zonal winds and temperature are generally realistic ( Ocean RepresentationsWe find it instructive to attach the identical atmospheric model to alternative ocean representations. We make calcula- AbstractWe carry out climate simulations for 880-2003 with GISS modelE driven by ten measured or estimated climate forcings. An ensemble of climate model runs is carried out for each forcing acting individually and for all forcing mechanisms acting together. We compare side-by-side simulated climate change for each forcing, all forcings, observations, unforced variability among model ensemble members, and, if available, observed variability. Discrepancies between observations and simulations with all forcings are due to model deficiencies, inaccurate or incomplete forcings, and imperfect observations. Although there are notable discrepancies between model and observations, the fidelity is sufficient to encourage use of the model for simulations of future climate change. By using a fixed well-documented model and accurately defining the 1880-2003 forcings, we aim to provide a benchmark against which the effect of improvements in the model, climate forcings, and observations can be tested. Principal model deficiencies include unrealistically weak tropical El Nino-like variability and a poor distribution of sea ice, with too much sea ice in the Northern Hemisphere and too little in the Southern Hemisphere. Greatest uncertainties in the forcings are the temporal and spatial variations of anthropogenic aerosols and their indirect effects on clouds.
[1] We study the impacts of present-day aerosols emitted from particular regions and from particular sectors, as predicted by the Goddard Institute for Space Studies GCM. We track the distribution and direct radiative forcing of aerosols, including sulfate and black and organic carbon, emitted from major source regions (North America, Europe, south Asia, Southeast Asia, South America, and Africa). We also partition the emissions by sector, including industrial, power, residential, transport, biomass burning, and natural. Southeast Asia produces 15% and 10% of the world's black carbon and sulfate and exports over 2/3 of this burden over the Northern Hemisphere. About 1/2 of the SO 2 emitted by Southeast Asia and Europe is not converted to sulfate because of oxidant limitation. Although Africa has the largest biomass burning emissions, South America generates a larger (about 20% of the global carbonaceous) aerosol burden; about 1/2 of this burden is exported and dominates the carbonaceous aerosol load in the Southern Hemisphere. Calculated direct anthropogenic radiative forcings are À0.29, À0.06, and 0.24 W m À2 for sulfate, organic, and black carbon, respectively. The largest BC radiative forcings are from residential (0.09 W m À2 ) and transport (0.06 W m À2 ) sectors, making these potential targets to counter global warming. However, scattering components within these sectors reduce these to 0.04 and 0.03 W m À2 , respectively. Most anthropogenic sulfate comes from power and industry sectors, and these sectors are responsible for the large negative aerosol forcings over the central Northern Hemisphere.
Abstract. Nitrate aerosols are expected to become more important in the future atmosphere due to the expected increase in nitrate precursor emissions and the decline of ammoniumsulphate aerosols in wide regions of this planet. The GISS climate model is used in this study, including atmospheric gas-and aerosol phase chemistry to investigate current and future (2030, following the SRES A1B emission scenario) atmospheric compositions. A set of sensitivity experiments was carried out to quantify the individual impact of emissionand physical climate change on nitrate aerosol formation. We found that future nitrate aerosol loads depend most strongly on changes that may occur in the ammonia sources. Furthermore, microphysical processes that lead to aerosol mixing play a very important role in sulphate and nitrate aerosol formation. The role of nitrate aerosols as climate change driver is analyzed and set in perspective to other aerosol and ozone forcings under pre-industrial, present day and future conditions. In the near future, year 2030, ammonium nitrate radiative forcing is about −0.14 W/m 2 and contributes roughly 10% of the net aerosol and ozone forcing. The present day nitrate and pre-industrial nitrate forcings are −0.11 and −0.05 W/m 2 , respectively. The steady increase of nitrate aerosols since industrialization increases its role as a non greenhouse gas forcing agent. However, this impact is still small compared to greenhouse gas forcings, therefore the main role nitrate will play in the future atmosphere is as an air pollutant, with annual mean near surface air concentrations, in the fine particle mode, rising above 3 µg/m 3 in China and therefore reaching pollution levels, like sulphate aerosols.
A much-cited bar chart provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change displays the climate impact, as expressed by radiative forcing in watts per meter squared, of individual chemical species. The organization of the chart reflects the history of atmospheric chemistry, in which investigators typically focused on a single species of interest. However, changes in pollutant emissions and concentrations are a symptom, not a cause, of the primary driver of anthropogenic climate change: human activity. In this paper, we suggest organizing the bar chart according to drivers of change-that is, by economic sector. Climate impacts of tropospheric ozone, fine aerosols, aerosol-cloud interactions, methane, and long-lived greenhouse gases are considered. We quantify the future evolution of the total radiative forcing due to perpetual constant year 2000 emissions by sector, most relevant for the development of climate policy now, and focus on two specific time points, near-term at 2020 and long-term at 2100. Because sector profiles differ greatly, this approach fosters the development of smart climate policy and is useful to identify effective opportunities for rapid mitigation of anthropogenic radiative forcing.global warming | mitigation | air pollution | ozone | aerosols C arbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is the most important single contributor to global climate change and therefore mitigation policies and actions must focus on this species even though impacts may take decades to be realized. The coemitted air pollutants tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) and fine aerosol particles also significantly affect global climate but in complex ways involving both warming and cooling (1). These air pollutants, hereafter referred to as shortlived species (SLS), have short atmospheric lifetimes of days to weeks such that changes in their precursor emissions will have a swift change in radiative forcing. Their combined climate forcing effect since preindustrial times may outweigh that of CO 2 (2). Concerns about the rapid rate at which climate is changing at present place urgent emphasis on exploiting the potential benefit of SLS (especially O 3 and black carbon) reductions in global climate change. The ability to evaluate these benefits is somewhat confounded by the coemitted aerosols that cool the climate, complex interactions between gas and aerosol pollutants, and the lack of useful metrics for air pollutants with uneven spatial distributions.O 3 is a greenhouse gas that warms the atmosphere. Most fine aerosol particles, including sulfate, nitrate, and organic carbon, scatter solar radiation back to space and lead to cooling, except for black carbon, which absorbs solar radiation and warms the atmosphere. Aerosols also affect climate by modifying the properties of clouds. Hygroscopic aerosols that serve as efficient cloud condensation nuclei can increase cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) and reduce cloud droplet effective sizes (R eff ) if cloud liquid water content remains unchanged (3)-the first indirect effect. A consequence ...
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