Climate Change & Aerosols
To assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of global climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, www.ipcc.ch) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). As reported by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, the level of scientific understanding of aerosols and clouds is very low (see figure below). In order to fully understand and predict regional and global climate change, a greater understand of aerosols and clouds is necessary.
Thus, the goal of this research is to use aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS) to study the size-resolved chemical composition of single atmospheric particles in real-time. Aerosols can have an impact on global and regional climate through a number of mechanisms. The aerosol direct effect refers to the absorption and scattering of solar radiation (UV/visible) and IR radiation from the Earth. The indirect effect refers to the effects of aerosol particles acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), increasing cloud lifetimes and suppressing rain, thereby serving to cool Earth’s atmosphere. An understanding of the balance of these effects will help us understand the global mean radiative forcing of aerosols and clouds. In addition, aerosol particles can undergo atmospheric processing, changing their radiative properties of adsorbing or scattering solar radiation, for example. Through both field and laboratory studies, the Prather Lab is investigating the size-resolved chemical composition of single atmospheric particles with regard to source apportionment, atmospheric processing, and absorption/scattering characteristics. By gaining a greater understanding of the aerosol direct effect, indirect effect, and atmospheric processing, climate prediction models will be strengthened.
