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Reflective Aerosols and the Greenhouse Effect

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Global Environmental Change

Part of the book series: Handbook of Global Environmental Pollution ((EGEP,volume 1))

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Abstract

The contributions of atmospheric aerosols to add to either a climate-warming effect or climate-cooling effect depend on the chemical composition of the aerosol and the local environment. The best estimation is that the global net effect of aerosols is cooling. The magnitude of this cooling effect is comparable to the warming caused by greenhouse gases, but the uncertainty associated with the total cooling effect is relatively large. An introduction to the properties of aerosols and the role aerosols play in altering the Earth’s radiative budget through direct effects is addressed.

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Correspondence to Kathryn E. Kautzman .

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© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Kautzman, K.E. (2014). Reflective Aerosols and the Greenhouse Effect. In: Freedman, B. (eds) Global Environmental Change. Handbook of Global Environmental Pollution, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5784-4_72

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