Increase of Global Albedo Due to Air Pollution

Abstract

Abstract The effect of an increase of particles in the atmosphere on the global albedo and accordingly on the thermal regime of the earth is studied by solving the equation of radiative transfer in model turbid atmospheres. Realistic model atmospheres with respect to size and vertical distributions of aerosol as well as reflectivity of the earth surface are assumed, and reflectivity at the top of the atmosphere, transniissivity at the earth surface, and absorptivity of turbid atmospheres are calculated as a function of atmospheric turbidity and the complex refractive index of the aerosol. It is shown that the thermal effect of increasing atmospheric turbidity is greatly affected by the imaginary part of the refractive index. Thus, if it takes a small value as is believed so at present, the earth-atmosphere system cools ofF with increase of turbidity, while if its value is large (ni0.05, ni being the imaginary part of the complex refractive index), heating of the earth- atmosphere system is expected due to...