Chasing pre-industrial aerosols

Models are critical to testing hypotheses and predicting outcomes. Models of climate change attempt to explain past events and predict future ones using data related to man-made and natural climate drivers. Aerosol particles result from both human activity and natural emissions. Significant uncertainty exists regarding their net effect on climate. One way to distinguish them is to look at pre-industrial environments when only natural aerosol emissions were present. The EU-funded CHAPAs project is studying aerosols in pristine environments like the Arctic and Siberia as a proxy. Environmental measurements and laboratory experiments will help scientists quantify the ways in which new aerosol particles form and grow, pointing to pre-industrial aerosol nucleation mechanisms that could enhance the accuracy of climate models.