Radiative warming by multicomponent soot-dominated aerosols can be controlled by material configuration

Abstract

Among aerosol constituents, soot-dominated particles represent a major concern in the context of climate change because of their highly variable warming effect. It is shown here that their radiative forcing can be controlled by properly mixing them with other materials, which suggests that transitioning from radiative warming to cooling is achievable even under a constant level of soot emission, i.e., without significantly limiting emissions from industries or other sources. This process is found here to hold for submicrometer and micrometer-sized multicomponent aggregates. It is concluded that the radiative forcing related to carbon emissions can be modulated by material coatings condensed onto the surface of absorbing soot particles, either during random particle–particle interactions in an open atmosphere, or in the controlled process of particle growth. The tailoring of optical properties of carbon emissions is thus theoretically possible. This is expected to have significant implications for future emission source regulation policies worldwide.