AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
Climate, Biofuel Emissions, and the Quest for Relevance
TAMI BOND, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Abstract Number: 450 Working Group: Invited by Conference Chair
Abstract Over the last 25 years, the climate research community has acknowledged that direct and cloud-related aerosol radiative forcing is one of the greatest uncertainties in understanding the trajectory of future climate. Understanding of present-day and historical aerosol forcing assists in determining climate sensitivity. I will discuss what is known about the historical evolution of burning biofuel to provide energy, the characteristics of emitted particles, and how these particles change with combustion technology. I’ll review how emission measurements made in controlled situations differ from those in real, in-use settings. I will also look forward to changes expected during the next 25 years, when aerosol concentrations will decrease or remain the same. The growing greenhouse-gas forcing is quite likely to overwhelm aerosol forcing, leaving aerosol science as a less important player in the climate arena. Nevertheless, stresses on well-being via climate and health are likely to persist, increasingly concentrated among sensitive and low-income populations. I argue that aerosol scientists will have a transformed but equally relevant role to play in the coming world.