skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The Global Aerosol Synthesis and Science Project (GASSP): Measurements and Modeling to Reduce Uncertainty

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [6];  [6] more »;  [7];  [8];  [8];  [8];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14];  [15];  [16];  [17];  [18];  [19];  [19];  [20];  [21] « less
  1. Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom). School of Earth and Environment
  2. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics
  3. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom). National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
  4. Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom). National Centre for Atmospheric Science, and the School of Earth and Environment
  5. Univ. of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI (United States)
  6. Leibniz Inst. for Tropospharenforschung, Leibniz (Germany)
  7. Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
  8. Max Planck Inst. for Chemistry, Mainz (Germany)
  9. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland); Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Edinburgh (United Kingdom)
  10. National Inst. of Polar Research, Tachikawa, Tokyo (Japan)
  11. Meteorological Research Inst. (MRI), Tsukuba (Japan)
  12. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Boulder, CO (United States). Earth System Research Lab.
  13. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  14. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)
  15. The Cyprus Inst., Nicosia (Cyprus). Energy, Environment and Water Research Center
  16. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric Science
  17. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Meteorology
  18. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Seattle, WA (United States). Pacific Marine Environmental Lab. (PMEL)
  19. Nanjing Univ. (China). School of Atmospheric Sciences
  20. Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
  21. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)

The largest uncertainty in the historical radiative forcing of climate is caused by changes in aerosol particles due to anthropogenic activity. Sophisticated aerosol microphysics processes have been included in many climate models in an effort to reduce the uncertainty. However, the models are very challenging to evaluate and constrain because they require extensive in situ measurements of the particle size distribution, number concentration, and chemical composition that are not available from global satellite observations. The Global Aerosol Synthesis and Science Project (GASSP) aims to improve the robustness of global aerosol models by combining new methodologies for quantifying model uncertainty, to create an extensive global dataset of aerosol in situ microphysical and chemical measurements, and to develop new ways to assess the uncertainty associated with comparing sparse point measurements with low-resolution models. GASSP has assembled over 45,000 hours of measurements from ships and aircraft as well as data from over 350 ground stations. The measurements have been harmonized into a standardized format that is easily used by modelers and nonspecialist users. Available measurements are extensive, but they are biased to polluted regions of the Northern Hemisphere, leaving large pristine regions and many continental areas poorly sampled. The aerosol radiative forcing uncertainty can be reduced using a rigorous model–data synthesis approach. Nevertheless, our research highlights significant remaining challenges because of the difficulty of constraining many interwoven model uncertainties simultaneously. Although the physical realism of global aerosol models still needs to be improved, the uncertainty in aerosol radiative forcing will be reduced most effectively by systematically and rigorously constraining the models using extensive syntheses of measurements.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0007178; NE/J024252/1; NE/J022624/1; NE/J023515/1; NE/I020059/1; NE/I020148/1
OSTI ID:
1425636
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 98, Issue 9; ISSN 0003-0007
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 46 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (60)

Quantifying the uncertainty in forecasts of anthropogenic climate change journal October 2000
Black carbon or brown carbon? The nature of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols journal January 2006
Strong present-day aerosol cooling implies a hot future journal June 2005
Aerosol decadal trends – Part 2: In-situ aerosol particle number concentrations at GAW and ACTRIS stations journal January 2013
A manifesto for the equifinality thesis journal March 2006
Elemental Carbon-Based Method for Monitoring Occupational Exposures to Particulate Diesel Exhaust journal January 1996
Anthropogenic Aerosols and the Weakening of the South Asian Summer Monsoon journal September 2011
Aerosols implicated as a prime driver of twentieth-century North Atlantic climate variability journal April 2012
Chemical and microphysical characterization of ambient aerosols with the aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer journal January 2007
Large contribution of natural aerosols to uncertainty in indirect forcing journal November 2013
The magnitude and sources of uncertainty in global aerosol journal January 2013
Hemispheric Aerosol Vertical Profiles: Anthropogenic Impacts on Optical Depth and Cloud Nuclei journal September 2010
Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization journal January 2016
New approaches to quantifying aerosol influence on the cloud radiative effect journal February 2016
Aerosol Properties and Processes: A Path from Field and Laboratory Measurements to Global Climate Models journal July 2007
Challenges in constraining anthropogenic aerosol effects on cloud radiative forcing using present-day spatiotemporal variability journal February 2016
Parametric uncertainty effects on aerosol radiative forcing: UNCERTAINTY EFFECTS ON AEROSOL RADIATIVE FORCING journal August 2009
Occurrence of pristine aerosol environments on a polluted planet journal December 2014
Real-Time Measurements of the Size Fractionation of Ambient Black Carbon Aerosols at Elevated Humidities journal January 1989
Size distribution and chemical composition of marine aerosols: a compilation and review journal January 2000
Characterization of the Gent Stacked Filter Unit PM 10 Sampler journal January 1997
The effect of smoke, dust, and pollution aerosol on shallow cloud development over the Atlantic Ocean journal August 2005
An AeroCom initial assessment – optical properties in aerosol component modules of global models journal January 2006
What controls the vertical distribution of aerosol? Relationships between process sensitivity in HadGEM3–UKCA and inter-model variation from AeroCom Phase II journal January 2016
Robustness and uncertainties in the new CMIP5 climate model projections journal October 2012
The Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP): overview and description of models, simulations and climate diagnostics journal January 2013
Emulation of a complex global aerosol model to quantify sensitivity to uncertain parameters journal January 2011
Mapping the uncertainty in global CCN using emulation journal January 2012
The magnitude and causes of uncertainty in global model simulations of cloud condensation nuclei journal January 2013
On the relationship between aerosol model uncertainty and radiative forcing uncertainty journal February 2016
Impact of parametric uncertainties on the present-day climate and on the anthropogenic aerosol effect journal January 2010
Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity journal January 2014
An Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ACSM) for Routine Monitoring of the Composition and Mass Concentrations of Ambient Aerosol journal July 2011
Uncertainty analysis of indirect radiative forcing by anthropogenic sulfate aerosols journal February 1998
Multi-angle absorption photometry—a new method for the measurement of aerosol light absorption and atmospheric black carbon journal April 2004
How declining aerosols and rising greenhouse gases forced rapid warming in Europe since the 1980s: AEROSOL VERSUS GREENHOUSE GAS FORCING journal January 2009
Aerosol indirect effects – general circulation model intercomparison and evaluation with satellite data journal January 2009
Uncertainty in the magnitude of aerosol-cloud radiative forcing over recent decades journal December 2014
The Climatic Importance of Uncertainties in Regional Aerosol–Cloud Radiative Forcings over Recent Decades journal September 2015
A Continuous-Flow Streamwise Thermal-Gradient CCN Chamber for Atmospheric Measurements journal March 2005
Flood or Drought: How Do Aerosols Affect Precipitation? journal September 2008
Will a perfect model agree with perfect observations? The impact of spatial sampling journal January 2016
The importance of temporal collocation for the evaluation of aerosol models with observations journal January 2016
Single-particle measurements of midlatitude black carbon and light-scattering aerosols from the boundary layer to the lower stratosphere journal January 2006
Improving our fundamental understanding of the role of aerosol−cloud interactions in the climate system journal May 2016
Multivariate probabilistic projections using imperfect climate models part I: outline of methodology journal November 2011
Climate response to regional radiative forcing during the twentieth century journal March 2009
Perturbed physics ensemble using the MIROC5 coupled atmosphere–ocean GCM without flux corrections: experimental design and results: Parametric uncertainty of climate sensitivity journal July 2012
Multi-parameter multi-physics ensemble (MPMPE): a new approach exploring the uncertainties of climate sensitivity: Multi-parameter multi-physics ensemble journal November 2013
Role of volcanic and anthropogenic aerosols in the recent global surface warming slowdown journal June 2016
Supersaturation in the Wyoming CCN Instrument journal October 2006
Gridded global surface ozone metrics for atmospheric chemistry model evaluation journal January 2016
Untangling aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in a buffered system journal October 2009
Limitations of passive remote sensing to constrain global cloud condensation nuclei journal January 2016
Analysis and quantification of the diversities of aerosol life cycles within AeroCom journal January 2006
Assessing the effects of anthropogenic aerosols on Pacific storm track using a multiscale global climate model journal April 2014
Community Intercomparison Suite (CIS) v1.4.0: a tool for intercomparing models and observations journal January 2016
A Particle-into-Liquid Collector for Rapid Measurement of Aerosol Bulk Chemical Composition journal January 2001
Mobility particle size spectrometers: harmonization of technical standards and data structure to facilitate high quality long-term observations of atmospheric particle number size distributions journal January 2012
Uncertainty quantification and parameter tuning in the CAM5 Zhang-McFarlane convection scheme and impact of improved convection on the global circulation and climate: PARAMETERS TUNING IN CAM5 AND ITS IMPACT journal January 2013

Cited By (16)

Dimethyl sulfide and its role in aerosol formation and growth in the Arctic summer – a modelling study journal January 2019
The importance of comprehensive parameter sampling and multiple observations for robust constraint of aerosol radiative forcing journal January 2018
Aerosol and physical atmosphere model parameters are both important sources of uncertainty in aerosol ERF journal January 2018
Perspectives on the Future of Ice Nucleation Research: Research Needs and Unanswered Questions Identified from Two International Workshops journal July 2017
The Met Office Unified Model Global Atmosphere 7.0/7.1 and JULES Global Land 7.0 configurations journal January 2019
Improving meteorological drought monitoring capability over tropical and subtropical water-limited ecosystems: evaluation and ensemble of the Microwave Integrated Drought Index journal April 2019
The potential role of methanesulfonic acid (MSA) in aerosol formation and growth and the associated radiative forcings journal January 2019
Molecular identification of organic vapors driving atmospheric nanoparticle growth journal September 2019
Aerosol arriving on the Caribbean island of Barbados: physical properties and origin journal January 2016
The impact of climate mitigation measures on near term climate forcers journal October 2019
Aerosol characteristics and particle production in the upper troposphere over the Amazon Basin journal January 2018
In situ constraints on the vertical distribution of global aerosol journal January 2019
Perspectives on the Future of Ice Nucleation Research: Research Needs and Unanswered Questions Identified from Two International Workshops text January 2017
Aerosol characteristics and particle production in the upper troposphere over the Amazon Basin text January 2018
Is Black Carbon an Unimportant Ice-Nucleating Particle in Mixed-Phase Clouds? text January 2018
Aerosol arriving on the Caribbean island of Barbados: Physical properties and origin other January 2016

Similar Records

Evaluating uncertainty in aerosol forcing of tropical precipitation shifts
Journal Article · Fri Aug 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Earth System Dynamics (Online) · OSTI ID:1425636

Aerosol-cloud-climate cooling overestimated by ship-track data
Journal Article · Thu Jan 28 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Science · OSTI ID:1425636

Aerosols at the poles: an AeroCom Phase II multi-model evaluation
Journal Article · Fri Oct 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:1425636

Related Subjects