Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming
The rapid temperature increase of 1°C over mainland Europe since 1980 is considerably larger than the temperature rise expected from anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases. Here we present aerosol optical depth measurements from six specific locations and surface irradiance measurements from a large...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2008-06-01
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| Series: | Geophysical Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034228 |
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| _version_ | 1850271167976308736 |
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| author | Christian Ruckstuhl Rolf Philipona Klaus Behrens Martine Collaud Coen Bruno Dürr Alain Heimo Christian Mätzler Stephan Nyeki Atsumu Ohmura Laurent Vuilleumier Michael Weller Christoph Wehrli Antoine Zelenka |
| author_facet | Christian Ruckstuhl Rolf Philipona Klaus Behrens Martine Collaud Coen Bruno Dürr Alain Heimo Christian Mätzler Stephan Nyeki Atsumu Ohmura Laurent Vuilleumier Michael Weller Christoph Wehrli Antoine Zelenka |
| author_sort | Christian Ruckstuhl |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The rapid temperature increase of 1°C over mainland Europe since 1980 is considerably larger than the temperature rise expected from anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases. Here we present aerosol optical depth measurements from six specific locations and surface irradiance measurements from a large number of radiation sites in Northern Germany and Switzerland. The measurements show a decline in aerosol concentration of up to 60%, which have led to a statistically significant increase of solar irradiance under cloud‐free skies since the 1980s. The measurements confirm solar brightening and show that the direct aerosol effect had an approximately five times larger impact on climate forcing than the indirect aerosol and other cloud effects. The overall aerosol and cloud induced surface climate forcing is ∼+1 W m−2 dec−1 and has most probably strongly contributed to the recent rapid warming in Europe. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c6ca2a4c8dce445696fc5be81d7cb4ec |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0094-8276 1944-8007 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2008-06-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geophysical Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-c6ca2a4c8dce445696fc5be81d7cb4ec2025-08-20T01:52:19ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072008-06-013512n/an/a10.1029/2008GL034228Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warmingChristian Ruckstuhl0Rolf Philipona1Klaus Behrens2Martine Collaud Coen3Bruno Dürr4Alain Heimo5Christian Mätzler6Stephan Nyeki7Atsumu Ohmura8Laurent Vuilleumier9Michael Weller10Christoph Wehrli11Antoine Zelenka12Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandAerological Station Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Payerne SwitzerlandMeteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg, Deutscher Wetterdienst Lindenberg GermanyAerological Station Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Payerne SwitzerlandFederal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Zurich SwitzerlandAerological Station Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Payerne SwitzerlandInstitute of Applied Physics University of Bern Bern SwitzerlandPhysikalisch‐Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos World Radiation Center Davos SwitzerlandInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science ETH Zurich Zurich SwitzerlandAerological Station Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Payerne SwitzerlandMeteorologisches Observatorium Lindenberg, Deutscher Wetterdienst Lindenberg GermanyPhysikalisch‐Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos World Radiation Center Davos SwitzerlandFederal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss Zurich SwitzerlandThe rapid temperature increase of 1°C over mainland Europe since 1980 is considerably larger than the temperature rise expected from anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases. Here we present aerosol optical depth measurements from six specific locations and surface irradiance measurements from a large number of radiation sites in Northern Germany and Switzerland. The measurements show a decline in aerosol concentration of up to 60%, which have led to a statistically significant increase of solar irradiance under cloud‐free skies since the 1980s. The measurements confirm solar brightening and show that the direct aerosol effect had an approximately five times larger impact on climate forcing than the indirect aerosol and other cloud effects. The overall aerosol and cloud induced surface climate forcing is ∼+1 W m−2 dec−1 and has most probably strongly contributed to the recent rapid warming in Europe.https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034228solar brighteningsurface radiative |
| spellingShingle | Christian Ruckstuhl Rolf Philipona Klaus Behrens Martine Collaud Coen Bruno Dürr Alain Heimo Christian Mätzler Stephan Nyeki Atsumu Ohmura Laurent Vuilleumier Michael Weller Christoph Wehrli Antoine Zelenka Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming Geophysical Research Letters solar brightening surface radiative |
| title | Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming |
| title_full | Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming |
| title_fullStr | Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming |
| title_full_unstemmed | Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming |
| title_short | Aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming |
| title_sort | aerosol and cloud effects on solar brightening and the recent rapid warming |
| topic | solar brightening surface radiative |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034228 |
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