An Aerosol Climatology for Western Europe

西欧气溶胶气候学

• 批准号: 0107607
• 负责人: Helen Power
• 金额: $ 8.5万
• 依托单位: University of South Carolina at Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-09-01 至 2004-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0107607&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Aerosol; Climatology; Western; Europe

Dust particles suspended in the atmosphere, known as aerosols, affect the earth's climate in two ways. They absorb and scatter solar radiation, and they affect the physical properties of clouds. Aerosols are thought to have a net cooling effect and thus they may mask the potential warming effects of anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases. Despite their importance, aerosol-climate interactions represent a large source of uncertainty in understanding the climate system. A key reason for this uncertainty is that aerosols demonstrate high variability, both spatially and temporally, yet the extent of their variability has not been fully investigated. Constraints associated with conventional approaches to measuring total column aerosol-including the requirements for clear skies and costly equipment-have contributed to a paucity of aerosol data. Although the majority of anthropogenic aerosols (i.e. pollution) are emitted in the Northern Hemisphere, there are very few reliable long-term records of total column aerosol in the northern half of the globe. This research will employ a radiation-based model, together with satellite and climate data, to evaluate seasonal, interannual, and spatial variability of aerosols in Western Europe, regardless of cloud cover. A key product will be a more complete documentation of the amount and variability of aerosols than is currently available. Time series and spatial analyses will also be used to investigate the degree to which pollution may be augmenting the background aerosol load, and will permit detection of possible volcanic influences on the aerosol signal.The results of this research will help explain climate change and variability in Western Europe reported by other investigators, and will also help elucidate the relative roles of aerosols and greenhouse gases in the climate system. This will permit improvements in how aerosols are represented in regional and global climate models. This research will therefore enhance our understanding of climate and climate change, and will help policy makers prepare informed climate change policies.

悬浮在大气中的尘埃颗粒，即所谓的气溶胶，以两种方式影响地球的气候。它们吸收和散射太阳辐射，并影响云的物理性质。气溶胶被认为具有净冷却效应，因此它们可能掩盖人为增加温室气体的潜在变暖效应。尽管它们很重要，但气溶胶与气候的相互作用在理解气候系统方面仍是一个很大的不确定性来源。造成这种不确定性的一个关键原因是，气溶胶在空间和时间上都表现出高度变异性，但其变异性的程度尚未得到充分研究。测量总柱气溶胶的传统方法的限制——包括晴空和昂贵设备的要求——导致了气溶胶数据的缺乏。虽然大多数人为气溶胶（即污染）是在北半球排放的，但在地球北半部，很少有可靠的长期柱状气溶胶总量记录。这项研究将采用基于辐射的模式，结合卫星和气候数据，评估西欧气溶胶的季节、年际和空间变异性，而不考虑云量。一个关键的成果将是比现有的更完整地记录气溶胶的数量和变异性。时间序列和空间分析也将用于调查污染可能增加本底气溶胶负荷的程度，并将允许检测可能的火山对气溶胶信号的影响。这项研究的结果将有助于解释其他研究者报告的西欧气候变化和变率，也将有助于阐明气溶胶和温室气体在气候系统中的相对作用。这将有助于改进气溶胶在区域和全球气候模式中的表现方式。因此，这项研究将增强我们对气候和气候变化的理解，并将帮助决策者制定明智的气候变化政策。