Computation of anthropogenic sulphate aerosol forcing using radiative perturbation theory

Abstract

The radiative forcing of the climate by anthropogenic aerosols has been a matter of some concern for many years now, especially in the northern hemisphere. Recently in these pages, Charlson et al. attempted to quantify this forcing. However, that calculation involved relatively crude optical and radiative transfer models. In this paper, we use a far more detailed sulphate optical model, and employ radiative perturbation theory (a technique ideally suited to answering questions of this sort) to repeat this radiation calculation. We obtain results which are similar to Charlson et al., provided that proper allowance is made for the effects of humidity.