Aerosol Chemistry and Effects in the Anthropocene

Atmospheric aerosols impact air quality and human health. They also play a key role in the Earth’s weather and climate systems.  Aerosol amounts and physical and chemical properties determine their toxicity, radiative and microphysical impacts. Recent advances in observations and models are significantly enhancing our ability to quantify the distribution and properties of aerosols, understand their impacts on atmospheric radiation and cloud distributions and properties, and their presence near the Earth’s surface and the resulting impacts to human health. There is a need for closer integration of aerosols into numerical prediction systems. The World Meteorological Organization has set a strategic goal to advance earth systems modeling to enhance seamless prediction of environmental, weather and climate services across spatial and temporal scales. In this talk the need for this approach and the opportunities and advances will be discussed.