Large historical changes of fossil‐fuel black carbon aerosols
Open accessAbstract
Anthropogenic emissions of fine black carbon (BC) particles, the principal light‐absorbing atmospheric aerosol, have varied during the past century in response to changes of fossil‐fuel utilization, technology developments, and emission controls. We estimate historical trends of fossil‐fuel BC emissions in six regions that represent about two‐thirds of present day emissions and extrapolate these to global emissions from 1875 onward. Qualitative features in these trends show rapid increase in the latter part of the 1800s, the leveling off in the first half of the 1900s, and the re‐acceleration in the past 50 years as China and India developed. We find that historical changes of fuel utilization have caused large temporal change in aerosol absorption, and thus substantial change of aerosol single scatter albedo in some regions, which suggests that BC may have contributed to global temperature changes in the past century. This implies that the BC history needs to be represented realistically in climate change assessments.
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Black carbon increases markedly towards the end of the 19th century, and especially from ~1970 C.E., with a peak at 6.7 Tg/year in ~1990 C.E.
“BC increases markedly towards the end of the 19 th century, and especially from ~1970 C.E., with a peak at 6.7 Tg/year in ~1990 C.E. ( 30 ; Fig. 2B).”
From The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene (2016) · cites this paper as [30]
The Results and Discussion (§2, paragraphs 19–20) describe a rapid rise in estimated fossil-fuel BC emissions in the late 1800s and a later reacceleration; paragraph 12 also notes increased diesel-related emissions in China and India after 1970. Our copy does not state a peak of 6.7 Tg/year around 1990, and its estimates cover fossil-fuel BC rather than all BC emissions. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene
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“fossil fuel consumption data for 1875–1999 CE (30).”
BackgroundYoung people's burden: requirement of negative CO <sub>2</sub> emissions
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Novakov, T., Ramanathan, V., Hansen, J. E., Kirchstetter, T. W., Sato, M., Sinton, J. E., & Sathaye, J. A.
- Affiliations
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US)
- Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US)
- Venue
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Publisher
- American Geophysical Union (AGU)
- Published
- 2003-03
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 6
- ISSN
- 0094-8276 (ISSN-L)
- 1944-8007
- OpenAlex
- W2134362679
- Cited by
- 281
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 14
- FWCI
- 8.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Geophysical Research Letters (publishedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Toxic Organic Pollutants Impact
- Keywords
- black carbon, fossil fuel emissions, light-absorbing aerosols, aerosol absorption, single scattering albedo, fuel utilization, emission control, global temperature change, climate change assessment
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