DLS – Arlene Fiore

Title:

Air pollution-climate linkages: A bidirectional, regional-to-global view

Abstract:

Earth system processes couple air pollution with climate change. Climate change can influence the emissions, chemistry, deposition, and meteorology that shape spatiotemporal distributions of air pollutants.  In turn, radiatively active air pollutants can alter regional and global climate.  I will discuss two-way interactions between regional pollution and the climate system.  One view will be through the lens of eastern U.S. air pollution responses to rising long-lived greenhouse gases.  A second perspective will highlight a few climate system responses to declining regional aerosol pollution.  Knowledge of air pollution-climate linkages can reveal otherwise inadvertent synergies and tradeoffs that arise, for example, from health-motivated controls on national air pollutant emissions.