New understanding of modeling soot in the atmosphere underscores the importance of reducing carbon emissions.
New understanding of modeling soot in the atmosphere underscores the importance of reducing carbon emissions.
Black carbon particles — more commonly known as soot — absorb heat in the atmosphere. For years, scientists have known that these particles are affecting Earth’s warming climate, but measuring their exact effect has proved elusive.
Researchers at Michigan Technological University and Brookhaven National Laboratory, along with partners at other universities, industry, and national labs, have determined that while the shape of particles containing black carbon does have some effect on atmospheric warming, it’s important to account for the structural differences in soot particles, as well as how the particles interact with other organic and inorganic materials that coat black carbon as it travels through the atmosphere.
Published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the article provides a framework that reconciles model simulations with laboratory and empirical observations, and that can be used to improve estimates of black carbon’s impact on climate.
Read more at Michigan Technological University
Image: Atmospheric soot particles as seen under a transmission electron microscope are coated by organic and inorganic materials. Different particles collected from the atmosphere, even the same location and at the same time, can present very different amounts of coating from particle to particle. This heterogeneity has an effect on the ability of soot to absorb radiation. CREDIT: Michigan Technological University
