Anthropogenic aerosols — aerosols originating from human activity — and greenhouse gases, or GHGs, have helped modulate the storage and distribution of heat in oceans since the industrial age.
Anthropogenic aerosols — aerosols originating from human activity — and greenhouse gases, or GHGs, have helped modulate the storage and distribution of heat in oceans since the industrial age. Isolating and quantifying the effects of both forcers using coupled climate model simulations, a University of California, Riverside-led team has found that anthropogenic aerosols and GHGs have played distinct roles in the world’s oceans in shaping the pattern of heat uptake, redistribution, and storage.
The researchers found aerosol-driven changes in ocean circulation and associated interbasin heat transport are more effective in altering oceanic heat distribution than those driven by globally increasing GHGs.
“A better understanding of the effects of individual anthropogenic forcings on oceanic heat redistribution and its implications for regional sea level change will help develop climate mitigation strategies,” said Wei Liu, an assistant professor of climate change and sustainability in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, who led the study published in Nature Geoscience.
Read more at: University of California - Riverside
Wei Liu is an assistant professor at UC Riverside. He will be promoted to associate professor July 1, 2023. (Photo Credit: UC Riverside)
