Using aerosols to detect climate change

Using aerosols to understand changes in transboundary air pollution pathways due to climate changes.

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Climate change presents a pressing environmental challenge, resulting in extreme weather events such as droughts, forest fires, and floods. Human activities releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere are the primary cause, leading to heat-trapping and temperature rise.

Aerosols like particulate matter impact public health and the climate by absorbing sunlight and altering cloud properties. Given the possibility of more severe impacts than predicted, accurate and early detection of climate change is critical.

Drawing on these insights, a team led by Professor Hitoshi Irie from the Center for Environmental Remote Sensing at Chiba University in Japan conducted a study using long-term observational data to explore the impact of climate change on transboundary air pollution downwind of China using aerosols. Their unique perspective on the climate-aerosol relationship led to the development of a new metric for detecting climate change by considering aerosols as tracers.

“The significance of this study lies in the fact that most of its results are derived from observational data. In natural sciences focused on Earth studies, the ultimate goal is to piece together highly accurate data obtained from observations to quantitatively understand the processes occurring on Earth and to pursue immutable truths. Therefore, the more observational data we have, the better. With the continued Earth observations by Japan’s major Earth observation satellites (such as the GCOM series, GOSAT series, Himawari series, and ALOS series), we aim to complement these efforts with numerical simulations and data science methodologies to achieve a safe and secure global environment that mitigates the impacts of the climate crisis,” explains Prof. Irie.

China is a major contributor to air pollution in East Asia. The downwind area of China studied in this research is a pristine open ocean location with minimal human impact, yet it serves as a crucial pathway for transboundary air pollution. This makes it an ideal site for studying meteorological variations due to climate change.

In this study, the researchers examined aerosol optical depth (AOD) datasets obtained from satellites, reanalysis datasets, and numerical simulations focused on the Pacific Ocean in the downwind area of China over a span of 19 years from 2003 to 2021. AOD, a measure of the amount of sunlight blocked by aerosols, is a pivotal factor in the analysis of aerosols and their influence on climate change.

The researchers have pioneered a groundbreaking metric called RAOD, harnessing the potential of aerosols as tracers to assess the impact of climate change on transboundary air pollution pathways. Through RAOD, they were able to precisely measure fluctuations in aerosol transport over time.

Their findings revealed that while long-term changes in RAOD stemming from climate change were notable, they were overshadowed by larger year-to-year variations in meteorological patterns. Notably, seasonal trends demonstrated that aerosols predominantly moved from west to east during spring and winter and northward in summer.

The study concluded that the likelihood of aerosols from China being carried far eastward was minimal, indicating a notable shift in transboundary pollution pathways as a consequence of global warming. Unlike most existing research, which relies on model simulations, this study successfully detected climate change using long-term satellite observational data, marking a significant advancement in this field.

“These results suggest that RAOD is a valuable metric for quantifying the long-term changes in transboundary air pollution pathways due to climate change. These results are particularly significant because most of them are derived from observational data,” says Prof. Irie, highlighting the importance of the study.

Sharing the future implications of their study, he concludes, “The effects of climate change could be more severe than currently predicted. This study will help verify climate change predictions from an unconventional perspective of ‘aerosol observation,’ enabling a more accurate understanding of climate change progression and implementation of rational countermeasures.”

The study showcases a new approach to utilizing aerosols as indicators of climate change, representing a major advancement in the worldwide endeavor to address the critical issue of climate change.

Journal reference:

  1. Ying Cai, Hitoshi Irie, Alessandro Damiani, Syuichi Itahashi, Toshihiko Takemura, Pradeep Khatri. Detectability of the potential climate change effect on transboundary air pollution pathways in the downwind area of China. Science of The Total Environment, 2024; DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.173490
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