Publication Date:
2008-08-09
Description:
Atmospheric aerosols play a substantial role in climate change through radiative forcing. Combustion-produced carbonaceous particles are the main light-absorbing aerosols; thus, quantifying their optical properties is essential for determining the magnitude of direct forcing. By using the electron energy-loss spectrum in the transmission electron microscope, we quantified the optical properties of individual, submicrometer amorphous carbon spheres that are ubiquitous in East Asian-Pacific outflow. The data indicate that these common spheres are brown, not black, with a mean refractive index of 1.67 - 0.27i (where i = square root 1) at a wavelength of 550 nanometers. The results suggest that brown carbon aerosols should be explicitly included in radiative forcing models.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Alexander, Duncan T L -- Crozier, Peter A -- Anderson, James R -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2008 Aug 8;321(5890):833-6. doi: 10.1126/science.1155296.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science, Arizona State University, Post Office Box 871704, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18687964" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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