New Wildfire Smoke Research Improves Climate Modeling Accuracy Details
Share This
Co-authored by a Texas A&M scientist, a new study shows that wildfire smoke cools the climate more than current computer models assume.
A new study on biomass-burning aerosols that includes a Texas A&M University professor has shown that smoke from wildfires has more of a cooling effect on the climate system than most climate models assume.
Xiaohong Liu, professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M, served as corresponding author of the research, which was recently published in Nature Communications.
When wildfires burn forests and grasslands, biomass-burning aerosols are produced, forming smoke clouds. The composition, size and mixing state of biomass-burning aerosols determine the optical properties of the smoke plumes in the atmosphere, and those properties determine how much the smoke clouds absorb and scatter the solar radiation. The researchers