Control of global cloud albedo and climate by marine dimethylsulfide emissions: A test by anthropogenic sulfur dioxide emissions

Conference · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:6517436

Schwartz, S E

This paper examines the hypothesized link between gaseous precursors of aerosol sulfate and global albedo and mean temperature. The thesis of this discussion is that since marine DMS emissions are substantially lower than present emissions of other gaseous precursors of atmospheric sulfate, principally SO2 associated with fossil fuel combustion, globally, and especially in the Northern Hemisphere, then consequently, if as CLAW suggest marine DMS emissions exert a major influence on global mean albedo and temperature, such an influence should also result from anthropogenic SO2 emissions. The potential for such anthropogenic influence on cloud albedo and global mean temperature has been noted. However, CLAW explicitly ''ignore the perturbations of the atmospheric sulphur cycle by manmade fluxes of SO2 /hor ellipsis/ and /hor ellipsis/ consider only the natural fluxes, which currently represent about 50% of the total flux of gaseous sulphur to the atmosphere, and which still dominate the atmospheric sulphur cycle in the Southern Hemisphere''. It is argued here that the increase in SO2 emissions over the past 100 years and the difference in gaseous sulfur emissions between the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere (SH) constitute a global experiment that tests the hypothesis that planetary albedo and mean temperature are regulated by marine DMS emissions. Comparison of present NH and SH cloud component of planetary albedo and of 100-year temperature records yields no indication of any influence of anthropogenic SO2 emissions qualitatively or quantitatively consistent with expectation based on the CLAW hypothesis applied to these emissions. 24 refs., 5 figs.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 6517436
• Report Number(s): BNL-41952; CONF-890134-3; ON: DE89004534
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
580500 -- Oceanography-- (1980-1989)
ALBEDO
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMISTRY
CLIMATES
CLOUDS
EMISSION
ENERGY BUDGETS
EVALUATION
GLOBAL ASPECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MICROORGANISMS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PRODUCTION
SEAWATER
SULFIDES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
WATER