Longwave radiative forcing by aqueous aerosols

Recently, a great deal of interest has been focused on the role of aerosols in climatic change because of their potential cooling impacts due to light scattering. Recent advances in infrared spectroscopy using cylindrical internal reflectance have allowed the longwave absorption of dissolved aerosol species and the associated liquid water to be accurately determined and evaluated. Experimental measurements using these techniques have shown that dissolved sulfate, nitrate, and numerous other aerosol species will act to cause greenhouse effects. Preliminary calculations indicate that the longwave climate forcing (i.e., heating) for sulfate aerosol will be comparable in magnitude to the cooling effect produced by light scattering. However, more detailed modeling will clearly be needed to address the impact of the longwave forcing due to aerosols as a function of atmospheric height and composition. Their work has shown that aerosol composition will be important in determining longwave forcing, while shortwave forcing will be more related to the physical size of the aerosol droplets. On the basis of these studies, it is increasingly apparent that aerosols, fogs, and clouds play a key role in determining the radiative balance of the atmosphere and in controlling regional and global climates.