The aerosol radiative effects of uncontrolled combustion of domestic waste

Abstract

Open, uncontrolled combustion of domestic waste is a potentially significant source of aerosol; however, this aerosol source is not generally included in many global emissions inventories. To provide a first estimate of the aerosol radiative impacts from domestic-waste combustion, we incorporate theWiedinmyer et al. (2014) emissions inventory into GEOS-Chem-TOMAS, a global chemical-transport model with online aerosol microphysics. We find domestic-waste combustion increases global-mean black carbon and organic aerosol concentrations by 8 and 6 %, respectively, and by greater than 40% in some regions. Due to uncertainties regarding aerosol optical properties, we estimate the globally averaged aerosol direct radiative effect to range from-5 to-20mWm-2; however, this range increases from-40 to +4mWm-2 when we consider uncertainties in emission mass and size distribution. In some regions with significant waste combustion, such as India and China, the aerosol direct radiative effect may exceed-0.4Wm-2. Similarly, we estimate a cloud-albedo aerosol indirect effect of-13mWm-2, with a range of-4 to-49mWm-2 due to emission uncertainties. In the regions with significant waste combustion, the cloud-albedo aerosol indirect effect may exceed-0.4Wm-2.