BIOAAT · Primary Biological Aerosol in the Atmosphere: Origins, Microphysical Processes, and Climatic Feedbacks
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-04-01 → 2023-05-03
- EU contribution
- €219,312
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Primary Biological Aerosol in the Atmosphere: Origins, Microphysical Processes, and Climatic Feedbacks
Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs), such as bacteria, fungal spores, and micro-algae, are significant natural sources of atmospheric particles, abundant in various ecosystems. They are dispersed over long distances and high altitudes by wind, playing a crucial role in spreading microorganisms, and affecting nutrient cycles, agriculture, and public health. Additionally, PBAPs act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) or ice nuclei (IN), impacting cloud and precipitation formation, radiation budget, and Earth's hydrological cycle and climate. The terrestrial emission flux of PBAP is estimated at 50 to 1000 Tg/yr, with a high uncertainty. Definitions of PBAPs vary across literature, leading to discrepancies in reported emission fluxes. The role of PBAPs in ice formation and climate impact remains uncertain due to limited measurements, especially over marine environments. Understanding PBAPs-cloud interactions is essential for climate research, aligning with Sustainable Development Goal 13 and the Paris Agreement. The BIOAAT project aims to address key scientific questions regarding PBAPs: 1. Global distribution and emission variations of PBAPs, affecting mass, surface concentration, deposition, and atmospheric lifetime. 2. Parametrization of PBAPs' ice nucleation activity considering their unique features. 3. Assessment of PBAPs' climatic impacts, especially in cloud formation scenarios. Key conclusions from BIOAAT include: 1. Development of the GISS-E2.1 climate model incorporating PBAPs emissions for investigating their climatic impacts. 2. PBAPs emissions contribute to cooling effects, particularly evident with increased emissions. 3. Recognition of the importance of PBAPs emissions from marine environments, often overlooked in previous studies. 4. Emphasis on the necessity of additional experimental data to refine PBAPs emission estimates and validate modeling studies. 5. Importance of considering PBAPs' molecular features, such as proteins attached to cell membranes, in parametrizing their ice nucleation activity. 6. Acknowledgment of the significant impact of PBAPs-cloud interactions on cloud radiative forcings, highlighting the need for comprehensive modeling. In summary, the BIOAAT project advances understanding of PBAPs' role in climate dynamics, emphasizing the complexity of their interactions with clouds and the atmosphere.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Primary biological aerosols particles (PBAP) are emitted from the land and marine surfaces into the atmosphere, where they were found to be abundant. The PBAP are of high importance because of their potential involvement on ice-nucleation (IN) and precipitation formation processes, with potential implications on the climate. Older studies showed that the total concentration of PBAP is smaller than other types of ice-nucleation particles, e.g. dust, while recent studies showed that the reported concentrations of PBAP are highly underestimated, thus, their IN activity and climatic impacts have large uncertainty. According to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the PBAP-cloud interactions, as a part of aerosol-cloud interactions, are still the least understood factor in our current understanding of climate change. In addition, combating climate change and its impacts is one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Therefore, it’s crucial to carry out further investigations on the emissions of PBAP and their consequent atmospheric microphysical processes and climatic impacts and feedbacks, which is the main objective of BIOAAT. The BIOAAT aims to: (i) deliver more realistic prediction of the emission flux and dispersion of PBAP; considering all ecosystems and meteorological conditions that lead to high variation in quantifying their concentrations, distributions, and emission fluxes, (ii) close the gap between observations and modelling studies on the impact of different types of PBAP on cloud ice and precipitation formation, and contribute to reducing the uncertainty of aerosol-cloud interactions, and (iii) ultimately delivers open-source models that describe the emission flux and ice nucleation rates of PBAP that can easily be implemented in different types of atmospheric models including climate models to better estimate past, present and future climate and environmental impacts of PBAP.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- AARHUS UNIVERSITET · Aarhus CCoordinatorDenmark
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union