Climate science boost with more accurate profile of tropical aerosols

CSIRO (Australia): The seasonal influence of aerosols on Australia's tropical climate can now be included in climate models following completion of the first long-term study of fine smoke particles generated by burning of the savanna open woodland and grassland.

Australia's biomass burning emissions comprise about eight per cent of the global total, ranking third by continent behind Africa (48 per cent) and South America (27 per cent).

Lead researcher, CSIRO's Dr Ross Mitchell, said fine particles generated by burning of the tropical savanna of Northern Australia are a globally significant aerosol source, with impacts on regional climate and air quality.

"Aerosols play a very important role in modulating climate, yet the knowledge of perhaps the most basic piece of information - the seasonal climatology - remains undetermined for many aerosol producing regions.

...."This foundation stone of the aerosol cycle allows hard-nosed testing and development of the aerosol modules used within global climate models," Dr Mitchell said...

Bush fire in central Queensland, shot by 80 trading 24, Wikimedia Commons, nder the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license