Climate-Chemistry Interaction: Future Tropospheric Ozone and Aerosols
Journal
The Future of the World's Climate
Pages
367-399
Date Issued
2012
Author(s)
Abstract
The radiative heating and cooling of the atmosphere is affected by perturbations of CO2, primary aerosols, and chemically active greenhouse compounds (CH4, N2O, CFCs), and by secondary compounds (tropospheric ozone, sulfate, and organic aerosols) that are formed in the atmosphere through a variety of chemical and physical processes. While the concentrations of these secondary compounds are dominated by the surface emissions of their gas phase precursors, they are also closely coupled to meteorological parameters: temperature, wind, and the hydrological cycle (moisture, precipitation, and clouds), and to solar radiation (photo-dissociation). Therefore, climate changes due to global warming from anthropogenic greenhouse additions may perturb atmospheric concentrations of chemically active climate compounds and thus the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere, providing feedback to the climate system. As the climatic states and surface precursor emissions exhibit distinctively different regional characteristics, this climate-chemistry interactions will play an important role in future climate changes that will disturb different areas differently. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
SDGs
Type
book part