ERC Consolidator Grant · 2025
Tracking Polluted Clouds: the Plausibility of a Strong Aerosol Cooling Effect on Earth’s Climate
Anthropogenic climate change is a tug-of-war with fossil fuels playing both sides of the field. Fossil fuel use emits both climate-warming greenhouse gases and climate-cooling aerosols. And aerosol impacts on clouds might have thus far masked a large fraction of greenhouse gas warming. If the aerosol cooling is strong, it implies 1) that the Earth’s climate is more sensitive to anthropogenic greenhouse gases than currently thought, and 2) reduced aerosol pollution has brought forward global warming. This project’s overarching hypothesis is that aerosol cooling is strong. I tackle this main hypothesis via the following specific hypotheses: - Thicker Clouds: Aerosols increase cloud thickness,…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.