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Sulphates, climate and coal, IEAPER/16

Author(s): Deborah M B Adams, Irene Smith

Price: £60.00

Coal combustion is estimated to be the source of about 60% of SO₂ emissions from human activities, and 35-77% of total SO₂ emissions, including natural emissions. Over 80% of emissions from human activities originate in the Northern Hemisphere. SO₂ is short lived in the atmosphere. It forms sulphates, mainly by reaction in the aqueous-phase with H₂O₂ or O₃, or by reaction with the OH radical in the gas-phase. Sulphate aerosols have a cooling effect on the climate in two ways, directly by backscattering solar radiation or indirectly by modifying cloud structure. The effects are difficult to quantify reliably but need to be included in model simulations of climatic change. Over the long term sulphate cooling combined with warming due to the enhanced greenhouse effect from other trace gases would result in a warming.

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