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Science 2 October 1992:
Vol. 258. no. 5079, pp. 117 - 120
DOI: 10.1126/science.258.5079.117
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Articles

Sulfate Cooling Effect on Climate Through In-Cloud Oxidation of Anthropogenic SO2

Jos Lelieveld 1 and Jost Heintzenberg 2

1 Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry Division, Post Office Box 3060, D-6500 Mainz, Germany
2 Department of Meteorology, University of Stockholm, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden

Anthropogenic SO2 emissions may exert a significant cooling effect on climate in the Northern Hemisphere through backscattering of solar radiation by sulfate particles. Earlier estimates of the sulfate climate forcing were based on a limited number of sulfate-scattering correlation measurements from which a high sulfate-scattering efficiency was derived. Model results suggest that cloud processing of air is the underlying mechanism. Aqueous phase oxidation of SO2 into sulfate and the subsequent release of the dry aerosol by cloud evaporation render sulfate a much more efficient scatterer than through gas-phase SO2 oxidation.

Submitted on April 23, 1992
Accepted on August 21, 1992


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Aqueous-phase photochemical formation of peroxides in authentic cloud and fog waters.
B. Faust, C Anastasio, J. Allen, and T Arakaki (1993)
Science 260, 73-75
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)