Air pollution, greenhouse gases and climate change : global and regional perspectives

PDFJournal ArticleClimate changeGlobal warmingAir pollutionGreenhouse gasesAerosolsAtmospheric chemistryTransport properties (Physics)International transportationRamanathan, VFeng, YNTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-Air QualityNTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTUS Transportation CollectionGreenhouse gases (GHGs) warm the surface and the atmosphere with significant implications for rainfall, retreat of glaciers and sea ice, sea level, among other factors. What is less recognized than problems with GHGs, however, is a comparably major global problem dealing with air pollution. Until about ten years ago, air pollution was thought to be just an urban or a local problem. But new data have revealed that air pollution is transported across continents and ocean basins due to fast long-range transport, resulting in trans-oceanic and trans-continental plumes of atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) containing sub-micron size particles, i.e., aerosols. (Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier)