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Direct radiative effect of aerosols emitted by transport: From road, shipping and aviation

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2010) 10(10) 4477-4489
DOI: 10.5194/acp-10-4477-2010
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Abstract

Aerosols and their precursors are emitted abundantly by transport activities. Transportation constitutes one of the fastest growing activities and its growth is predicted to increase significantly in the future. Previous studies have estimated the aerosol direct radiative forcing from one transport sub-sector, but only one study to our knowledge estimated the range of radiative forcing from the main aerosol components (sulphate, black carbon (BC) and organic carbon) for the whole transportation sector. In this study, we compare results from two different chemical transport models and three radiation codes under different hypothesis of mixing: internal and external mixing using emission inventories for the year 2000. The main results from this study consist of a positive direct radiative forcing for aerosols emitted by road traffic of +20±11mWm-2 for an externally mixed aerosol, and of +32±13mWm-2 when BC is internally mixed. These direct radiative forcings are much higher than the previously published estimate of +3±11mWm-2. For transport activities from shipping, the net direct aerosol radiative forcing is negative. This forcing is dominated by the contribution of the sulphate. For both an external and an internal mixture, the radiative forcing from shipping is estimated at-26±4mWm-2. These estimates are in very good agreement with the range of a previously published one (from-46 to-13mWm-2) but with a much narrower range. By contrast, the direct aerosol forcing from aviation is estimated to be small, and in the range-0.9 to +0.3mWm-2. © Author(s) 2010.

Figures

  • Table 1. Mass emitted, loads and aerosol optical depth (AOD) as computed in the LSCE model for BC, OC and SO4 emitted by the three sub-sectors.
  • Fig. 1. Distribution of the emissions from black carbon (Tons). The upper left panel represents the emissions from road transport, and the upper right panel from shipping, the lower left panel is the column integrated emission from aircraft. The lower right panel is the vertical distribution of the BC emissions from aviation.
  • Fig. 2. All-sky radiative forcings (mW m−2) of the direct aerosol effect from the three models: UiO (left column), LSCE (middle column) and UREAD (right column). The first line represents the RF from road activities, the second line, RF from shipping and the third line RF from aviation. Radiative forcings from LSCE and UREAD radiation codes are shown for BC externally mixed with the other aerosol component, whereas for UiO, radiative forcings are computed for BC internally mixed with other aerosol types.
  • Fig. 3. Zonal-mean all-sky radiative forcings (mW m−2) of the direct aerosol effect from the three models. The panels are presented in the same order than in Fig. 2. As in Fig. 2, the radiative forcing from UiO model is presented for BC internally mixed with the other components of the aerosols, whereas the radiative forcings for LSCE and UREAD models are presented for an external mixture of aerosols.
  • Table 2. Global-mean all-sky radiative forcing of the three aerosol components emitted from the road, ship and aviation sub-sectors. Radiative forcings are given for both an external and an internal mixture case.
  • Fig. 4. Global-mean all-sky direct aerosol radiative forcings (mW m−2) by subsectors and for each of the three aerosol components: BC, OC and SO4. The results are presented for the three models. For all models, the BC aerosols are considered internally mixed.
  • Figure 5. Fig. 5. Comparison of the all-sky total direct aerosol global-mean radiative forcings (mW m−2) for the three sub-sectors. For all three models, the BC aerosols are considered internally mixed.
  • Table 3. Burden, AOD and RF for BC for the 3 MODELS. Absorption and total extinction at 550 nm is given. Normalized RF is given as the all-sky radiative forcing (external mixing for all three models) divided by the burden.

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CITATION STYLE

APA

Balkanski, Y., Myhre, G., Gauss, M., Rädel, G., Highwood, E. J., & Shine, K. P. (2010). Direct radiative effect of aerosols emitted by transport: From road, shipping and aviation. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 10(10), 4477–4489. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-4477-2010

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