Abstract
Tropospheric aerosols play an important role in regulating the amount of solar radiation absorbed and reflected by the Earth-atmosphere system. Most particles, such as sulfate and chloride, mainly scatter solar radiation, while elemental carbon (“black” carbon, BC) in addition leads to considerable absorption. This scattering and absorption of solar radiation by the particles constitute the direct aerosol effect. Since hygroscopic aerosol particles may also serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), increased amounts imply increased cloud droplet number concentrations and smaller droplets, thus indirectly affecting the optical properties of the clouds. This is the so-called indirect aerosol effect. This chapter studies possible direct effects of BC and sulfate aerosols.
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