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Impacts of Climate Change on Particulate Matter (PM)

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Handbook of Air Quality and Climate Change

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Abstract

Climate change affects the interannual and decadal variabilities of airborne particulate matters (PM) through modifications to a variety of climate factors including solar radiation, temperature, wind speeds, precipitation, etc. The complicated responses of PM to climate change and their feedbacks within the Earth system have yet to be resolved. Here, the recent research progress is summarized for the following three points: (1) climate impacts on PM sources, (2) climate impacts on PM distributions and lifetimes, and (3) interactions between PM and climate change. First, the emissions of PM from wind erosion in deserts, vegetation wildfires, terrestrial biosphere, and oceans are of great potential to be susceptible to climate anomalies. Climate change can induce changes in both physical and biological processes in natural ecosystems that drive the production of PM or their precursors. Second, the climate-driven changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation influence the atmospheric transport of PM and their lifetimes. Third, these changes in PM could initiate climate feedback mechanisms through direct interactions with shortwave and longwave radiation and indirect interactions with clouds, biological activities, and the cryosphere. The PM-climate feedbacks in the Arctic region may contribute to the Arctic amplification via aerosol-cloud interactions and snow/ice albedo feedbacks. Earth system models are a powerful tool to examine the sensitivity of PM emissions and global distributions to isolated or coupled climate factors and to project trends in PM under a changing climate. Process-level understanding on PM-climate feedbacks is required to improve the credibility of PM projection by models.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan

    Mingxu Liu & Hitoshi Matsui

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  1. Mingxu Liu
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  2. Hitoshi Matsui
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Correspondence to Hitoshi Matsui .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nat'l Inst for Env Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Hajime Akimoto

  2. National Institute for Environ Studies, Tsukuba,Ibaraki, Japan

    Hiroshi Tanimoto

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Liu, M., Matsui, H. (2023). Impacts of Climate Change on Particulate Matter (PM). In: Akimoto, H., Tanimoto, H. (eds) Handbook of Air Quality and Climate Change. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2527-8_39-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2527-8_39-1

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