The contribution of black carbon to global ice nucleating particle concentrations relevant to mixed-phase clouds

Black carbon (BC) aerosol plays an important role in the Earth’s climate system because it absorbs solar radiation and therefore potentially warms the climate; however, BC can also act as a seed for cloud particles, which may offset much of its warming potential. If BC acts as an ice nucleating part...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2020-09, Vol.117 (37), p.22705-22711
Main Authors: Schill, Gregory P., DeMott, Paul J., Emerson, Ethan W., Rauker, Anne Marie C., Kodros, John K., Suski, Kaitlyn J., Hill, Thomas C. J., Levin, Ezra J. T., Pierce, Jeffrey R., Farmer, Delphine K., Kreidenweis, Sonia M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerosols
Air Pollutants - adverse effects
Air Pollutants - chemistry
Albedo
Biomass
Biomass burning
Black carbon
Burning
Burns
Carbon
Carbon - adverse effects
Carbon - chemistry
Climate Change
Climate system
Clouds
Emissions
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Fossil fuels
Ice
Ice - analysis
Parameterization
Physical Sciences
Prescribed fire
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Seasons
Solar radiation
Water
Water - chemistry
Water drops
Wildfires
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Summary:Black carbon (BC) aerosol plays an important role in the Earth’s climate system because it absorbs solar radiation and therefore potentially warms the climate; however, BC can also act as a seed for cloud particles, which may offset much of its warming potential. If BC acts as an ice nucleating particle (INP), BC could affect the lifetime, albedo, and radiative properties of clouds containing both supercooled liquid water droplets and ice particles (mixed-phase clouds). Over 40% of global BC emissions are from biomass burning; however, the ability of biomass burning BC to act as an INP in mixed-phase cloud conditions is almost entirely unconstrained. To provide these observational constraints, we measured the contribution of BC to INP concentrations ([INP]) in real-world prescribed burns and wildfires. We found that BC contributes, at most, 10% to [INP] during these burns. From this, we developed a parameterization for biomass burning BC and combined it with a BC parameterization previously used for fossil fuel emissions. Applying these parameterizations to global model output, we find that the contribution of BC to potential [INP] relevant to mixed-phase clouds is ∼5% on a global average.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2001674117