Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Measurement of Aerosols Optical Thickness of the Atmosphere using the GLOBE Handheld Sun Photometer
Published on: May 29, 2019
Impact of aerosol indirect effect on surface temperature over East Asia
Yan Huang1, Robert E Dickinson, William L Chameides
1School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA. yhuang@eas.gatech.edu
Abstract:
A regional coupled climate-chemistry-aerosol model is developed to examine the impacts of anthropogenic aerosols on surface temperature and precipitation over East Asia. Besides their direct and indirect reduction of short-wave solar radiation, the increased cloudiness and cloud liquid water generate a substantial downward positive long-wave surface forcing; consequently, nighttime temperature in winter increases by +0.7 degrees C, and the diurnal temperature range decreases by -0.7 degrees C averaged over the industrialized parts of China. Confidence in the simulated results is limited by uncertainties in model cloud physics. However, they are broadly consistent with the observed diurnal temperature range decrease as reported in China, suggesting that changes in downward long-wave radiation at the surface are important in understanding temperature changes from aerosols.
Related Concept Videos
Global Climate Change
Radiation: Applications
The average...
Atomic Spectroscopy: Effects of Temperature
At thermal equilibrium, the relative populations of excited and ground state atoms can be estimated using the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. For example, an increase in temperature from...
What is Climate?
Microbes and Climate Change
Atomic Emission Spectroscopy: Interference

