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Title: Impacts on cloud radiative effects induced by coexisting aerosols converted from international shipping and maritime DMS emissions

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)

International shipping emissions (ISE), particularly sulfur dioxide, can influence the global radiation budget by interacting with clouds and radiation after being oxidized into sulfate aerosols. A better understanding of the uncertainties in estimating the cloud radiative effects (CREs) of ISE is of great importance in climate science. Many international shipping tracks cover oceans with substantial natural dimethyl sulfide (DMS) emissions. The interplay between these two major aerosol sources on CREs over vast oceanic regions with a relatively low aerosol concentration is an intriguing yet poorly addressed issue confounding estimation of the CREs of ISE. Using an Earth system model including two aerosol modules with different aerosol mixing configurations, we derive a significant global net CRE of ISE (-0.153 W m-2 with a standard error of ±0.004 W m-2) when using emissions consistent with current ship emission regulations. This global net CRE would become much weaker and actually insignificant (-0.001 W m-2 standard error of ±0.007 W m-2) if a more stringent regulation were adopted. We then reveal that the ISE-induced CRE would achieve a significant enhancement when a lower DMS emission is prescribed in the simulations, owing to the sublinear relationship between aerosol concentration and cloud response. In addition, this study also demonstrates that the representation of certain aerosol processes, such as mixing states, can influence the magnitude and pattern of the ISE-induced CRE. These findings suggest a reevaluation of the ISE-induced CRE with consideration of DMS variability.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-94ER61937
OSTI ID:
1610279
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Vol. 18, Issue 22; ISSN 1680-7324
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 9 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Trans-Pacific transport and evolution of aerosols: spatiotemporal characteristics and source contributions journal January 2019

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