#EarthSystem: "Our results highlight the importance of region-specific #aerosol parameterizations as a crucial step towards reducing uncertainties in the estimation of direct radiative forcing in next-generation #climate models."

https://phys.org/news/2026-05-urban-aerosols-faster-polluted-air.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter

Wildfire dark brown carbon has strong global warming effects

Conventional understanding has held that brown #carbon—a type of organic #aerosol from #biomass burning—mainly absorbs sunlight in the near-ultraviolet range, giving it only a limited #climate impact. However, growing observations show that some #wildfire-derived #BrownCarbon appears dark brown or nearly black, absorbing light well into the visible spectrum. This "dark brown carbon" has been largely missing from global climate assessments.

The results show that wildfire-derived brown carbon has a global direct radiative effect of +0.097 W/m², with an uncertainty range of +0.050 to +0.276 W/m². Notably, the upper bound of this estimate (0.276 W/m²) exceeds the radiative contribution of black carbon (0.163 W/m²).

https://phys.org/news/2026-05-wildfire-dark-brown-carbon-strong.html

#ClimateScience