Summary of the CARBOSOL project: Present and retrospective state of organic versus inorganic aerosol over Europe

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research
• Main Authors: Legrand, Michel, Puxbaum, Hans
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de glaciologie et géophysique de l'environnement (LGGE), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers de Grenoble (OSUG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture (IRSTEA)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute for Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Vienna University of Technology = Technische Universität Wien (TU Wien), EU, contract EVK2 CT2001-00113
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2007
• Subjects: carbonaceous aerosol; Alpine ice core; radiative-transport-chemistry model; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; ice core
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-00377149; https://insu.hal.science/insu-00377149/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-00377149/file/2006JD008271.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD008271

International audience Aerosol is an important source of uncertainty concerning the role of the atmosphere in climate forcing. In particular, major gaps exist with respect to its carbonaceous fraction in terms of composition, source apportionment (natural versus anthropogenic), change over the past, and radiative impact. The CARBOSOL project contributes to reduce these uncertainties. CARBOSOL combines a 2-year study of present-day carbonaceous aerosol in air and precipitation in western/central Europe with the trends of climatically relevant species in Alpine ice cores. Comparisons between observed atmospheric distributions (present and proxy of past) and transport/chemistry model simulations allow to test the accuracy of present and past anthropogenic emission inventories and enable for the first time a comparison of the model results for individual components (primary, secondary, fossil fuel, and biogenic) against data derived from measurements. The net radiative effect of the aerosol load and composition (inorganic/organic) in Europe is evaluated using radiative/chemistry/transport models. This summary paper gives an overview of the CARBOSOL goals, and reports on the key findings as a guide to the results detailed in the papers that follow.