How climate change may impact future air quality

Recent work from graduate student Alison Banks and professor Gabriel Kooperman demonstrates how climate change may impact future air quality. 

Biomass and fossil fuel burning impact air quality by injecting fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and its precursors into the atmosphere, which poses serious threats to human health. However, the surface concentration of PM2.5 depends not only on the magnitude of emissions, but also secondary production, transport, and removal. For example, in response to greenhouse gas driven warming, meteorological conditions that govern aerosol removal, primarily through rainfall and wet deposition, could shift in pattern, frequency, and intensity. This climate change driven process can impact air quality even without changes in aerosol emissions.

In this experiment, the researchers conducted new simulations by fixing aerosol emissions at present-day levels in the Community Earth System Model (CESM2), but increasing greenhouse gases through the 21st century. In their results, the changes in patterns and intensity of PM2.5 are found to be associated with precipitation (via aerosol removal), temperature (via secondary organic aerosol formation), and moisture and clouds (via sulfate production). A decrease in wet day frequency (∼1.2% global mean) contributes to increases in the surface concentrations of black carbon, primary organic matter, and sulfate in many regions. This is offset in some regions by an upward vertical shift in the level where secondary organic aerosol forms, which contributes to higher column burden but lower surface concentration. These results highlight a need, using a variety of modeling tools, to continually reassess aerosol emissions regulations in response to anticipated climate changes.

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