Global measurements and model calculations show that the complex relationship between the chemistry and climate impact of aerosol particles can be successfully captured by a simple formula.
Global measurements and model calculations show that the complex relationship between the chemistry and climate impact of aerosol particles can be successfully captured by a simple formula.
The extent to which aerosol particles affect the climate depends on how much water the particles can hold in the atmosphere. The capacity to hold water is referred to as hygroscopicity (K) and, in turn, depends on further factors – particularly the size and chemical composition of the particles, which can be extremely variable and complex. Through extensive investigations, an international research team under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research (TROPOS) was able to reduce the relationship between the chemical composition and the hygroscopicity of aerosol particles to a simple linear formula. In a study that appeared in the journal "Nature Communications", they showed that hygroscopicity, averaged globally, is essentially determined by the share of organic and inorganic materials making up the aerosol.
Read more at: Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
By analysing long-term measurement data, for example from the ATTO research station in the Brazilian rainforest, the research team led by Mira and Christopher Pöhlker was able to reduce the complex relationship between chemistry and water absorption of particles in the atmosphere to a simple calculation formula. (Photo Credit: Dom Jack, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC))
