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Aerosol indirect effects from shipping emissions

In this study, we employ the global aerosol-climate model ECHAM-HAM to globally assess aerosol indirect effects (AIEs) resulting from shipping emissions of aerosols and aerosol precursor gases. We implement shipping emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), black carbon (BC) and particulate organic matter (POM) for the year 2000 into the model and quantify the model’s sensitivity towards uncertainties associated with the emission parameterisation as well as with
the shipping emissions themselves. Sensitivity experiments
are designed to investigate (i) the uncertainty in the size distribution
of emitted particles, (ii) the uncertainty associated with the total amount of emissions, and (iii) the impact of reducing carbonaceous emissions from ships. We use the results from one sensitivity experiment for a detailed discussion of shipping-induced changes in the global aerosol system as well as the resulting impact on cloud properties. From all sensitivity experiments, we find AIEs from
shipping emissions to range from −0.32±0.01Wm−2 to −0.07±0.01Wm−2 (global mean value and inter-annual variability as a standard deviation). The magnitude of the AIEs depends much more on the assumed emission size distribution and subsequent aerosol microphysical interactions than on the magnitude of the emissions themselves. It is important to note that although the strongest estimate of AIEs from shipping emissions in this study is relatively large, still much larger estimates have been reported in the literature before on the basis of modelling studies. We find that omitting
just carbonaceous particle emissions from ships favours new particle formation in the boundary layer. These newly formed particles contribute just about as much to the CCN budget as the carbonaceous particles would, leaving the globally averaged AIEs nearly unaltered compared to a simulation including carbonaceous particle emissions from ships.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:DRESDEN/oai:qucosa.de:bsz:15-qucosa-177632
Date26 August 2015
CreatorsPeters, Karsten, Stier, Philip, Quaas, Johannes, Graßl, Hartmut
ContributorsMax-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie,, International Max Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling,, University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Universität Leipzig, Institut für Meterorologie, Monash University, School of Mathematical Sciences, Copernicus Publication,
PublisherUniversitätsbibliothek Leipzig
Source SetsHochschulschriftenserver (HSSS) der SLUB Dresden
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typedoc-type:article
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceAtmospheric chemistry and physics (2012) 12, S. 5985-6007

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