Short-lived pollutants in the Arctic: their climate impact and possible mitigation strategies

[摘要] Several short-lived pollutants known to impact Arctic climate may becontributing to the accelerated rates of warming observed in this regionrelative to the global annually averaged temperature increase. Here, wepresent a summary of the short-lived pollutants that impact Arctic climateincluding methane, tropospheric ozone, and tropospheric aerosols. For eachpollutant, we provide a description of the major sources and the mechanismof forcing. We also provide the first seasonally averaged forcing andcorresponding temperature response estimates focused specifically on theArctic. The calculations indicate that the forcings due to black carbon,methane, and tropospheric ozone lead to a positive surface temperatureresponse indicating the need to reduce emissions of these species within andoutside the Arctic. Additional aerosol species may also lead to surfacewarming if the aerosol is coincident with thin, low lying clouds. We suggeststrategies for reducing the warming based on current knowledge and discussdirections for future research to address the large remaining uncertainties.

[学科分类] 大气科学