Identification

Title

Natural short-lived halogens exert an indirect cooling effect on climate

Abstract

Observational evidence shows the ubiquitous presence of ocean-emitted short-lived halogens in the global atmosphere(1-3). Natural emissions of these chemical compounds have been anthropogenically amplified since pre-industrial times(4-6), while, in addition, anthropogenic short-lived halocarbons are currently being emitted to the atmosphere(7,8). Despite their widespread distribution in the atmosphere, the combined impact of these species on Earth's radiative balance remains unknown. Here we show that short-lived halogens exert a substantial indirect cooling effect at present (-0.13 +/- 0.03 watts per square metre) that arises from halogen-mediated radiative perturbations of ozone (-0.24 +/- 0.02 watts per square metre), compensated by those from methane (+0.09 +/- 0.01 watts per square metre), aerosols (+0.03 +/- 0.01 watts per square metre) and stratospheric water vapour (+0.011 +/- 0.001 watts per square metre). Importantly, this substantial cooling effect has increased since 1750 by -0.05 +/- 0.03 watts per square metre (61 per cent), driven by the anthropogenic amplification of natural halogen emissions, and is projected to change further (18-31 per cent by 2100) depending on climate warming projections and socioeconomic development. We conclude that the indirect radiative effect due to short-lived halogens should now be incorporated into climate models to provide a more realistic natural baseline of Earth's climate system.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7b28090

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2023-06-29T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact