24.08.2013 Views

Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

Climate Change and the European Water Dimension - Agri ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Figure. I.4. Radiative forcings <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir uncertainties according to <strong>the</strong> IPCC (2001)<br />

The climate impact of aerosols depend on <strong>the</strong>ir chemical composition <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir size<br />

distribution, which has a strong influence on <strong>the</strong>ir atmospheric life times as well as<br />

<strong>the</strong>ir capacity to scatter light. The most important influence comes from aerosols in<br />

<strong>the</strong> accumulation mode, i.e. between 0.1 <strong>and</strong> 1 μm mass median diameters; smaller<br />

particles coagulate rapidly <strong>and</strong> deposition or formation of cloud droplets efficiently<br />

removes larger particles. Accumulation mode aerosol has atmospheric lifetimes up to<br />

several weeks.<br />

Atmospheric aerosols are directly emitted (primary aerosols) as well as formed by<br />

gas to particle conversion following chemical reactions in <strong>the</strong> atmosphere (so-called<br />

secondary aerosols). Particles are modified in <strong>the</strong> atmosphere by physical as well as<br />

chemical mechanisms (coagulation, condensation, cloud processing, etc.). Important<br />

sources of primary aerosol are soil dust, sea salt, industrial dust <strong>and</strong> carbonaceous<br />

aerosols (organic <strong>and</strong> black carbon) as well as primary biogenic aerosol. Black<br />

carbon aerosols from fossil fuel or biomass burning are of particular relevance<br />

because of <strong>the</strong>ir capacity to absorb light <strong>and</strong> thus contribute to heating of <strong>the</strong><br />

atmosphere. Secondary aerosol frequently derives from oxidation of sulphur dioxide<br />

or natural organic sulphur compounds (such as DMS) to sulphuric acid, from <strong>the</strong><br />

oxidation of natural <strong>and</strong> anthropogenically emitted volatile organic compounds (VOCs<br />

such as terpenes, aromatics) as well as from <strong>the</strong> formation of ammonium nitrate<br />

following <strong>the</strong> oxidation of NOx to nitric acid. Volcanoes are an important source of<br />

primary dust aerosol as well as sulphur dioxide in <strong>the</strong> atmosphere.<br />

21

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!