英国伯明翰大学Chen, Ying课题组报道，热带海洋云层中气溶胶引起实质性冷却效应增加。2024年4月11日，国际知名学术期刊《自然—地球科学》发表了这一成果。
课题组成员使用夏威夷火山爆发的卫星观测，来量化气溶胶在热带海洋云层上的气溶胶印记。研究观察到由于气溶胶引起的云量增加，反射的阳光大幅度增强。这种观察到的强负气溶胶作用力表明，目前的全球变暖水平是由比以前认为更弱的净辐射作用力（由温室气体和气溶胶的竞争效应引起）驱动的。
这意味着地球气候对辐射作用力更敏感，因此对温室气体浓度上升和空气质量措施导致的，大气气溶胶减少的变暖反应也更大。然而，研究结果还表明，通过海洋云增亮来减缓全球变暖是可行的，并且在太阳辐射强的热带潮湿地区和稳定的条件下最为有效。
据悉，自工业化时代以来，全球变暖目前升高了约1.2℃，气候变化已成为一个紧迫的全球问题。海洋云增亮是一种被提议的解决变暖的方法，通过向海洋云注入气溶胶来增强其反射率，从而提高行星反照率。然而，由于目前尚不清楚气溶胶如何影响云层，特别是云层覆盖，因此气候预估和海洋云层增亮的有效性仍然不确定。
附：英文原文
Title: Substantial cooling effect from aerosol-induced increase in tropical marine cloud cover
Author: Chen, Ying, Haywood, Jim, Wang, Yu, Malavelle, Florent, Jordan, George, Peace, Amy, Partridge, Daniel G., Cho, Nayeong, Oreopoulos, Lazaros, Grosvenor, Daniel, Field, Paul, Allan, Richard P., Lohmann, Ulrike
Issue&Volume: 2024-04-11
Abstract: With global warming currently standing at approximately +1.2°C since pre-industrial times, climate change is a pressing global issue. Marine cloud brightening is one proposed method to tackle warming through injecting aerosols into marine clouds to enhance their reflectivity and thereby planetary albedo. However, because it is unclear how aerosols influence clouds, especially cloud cover, both climate projections and the effectiveness of marine cloud brightening remain uncertain. Here we use satellite observations of volcanic eruptions in Hawaii to quantify the aerosol fingerprint on tropical marine clouds. We observe a large enhancement in reflected sunlight, mainly due to an aerosol-induced increase in cloud cover. This observed strong negative aerosol forcing suggests that the current level of global warming is driven by a weaker net radiative forcing than previously thought, arising from the competing effects of greenhouse gases and aerosols. This implies a greater sensitivity of Earth’s climate to radiative forcing and therefore a larger warming response to both rising greenhouse gas concentrations and reductions in atmospheric aerosols due to air quality measures. However, our findings also indicate that mitigation of global warming via marine cloud brightening is plausible and is most effective in humid and stable conditions in the tropics where solar radiation is strong.
DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01427-z
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01427-z