2,3,4- 1Laboratory of Atmospheric Observation Supersite, School of Environment and Energy, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School; Shenzhen 518055, China.
- 2Tianjin Key Laboratory of Urban Transport Emission Research & State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Urban Ambient Air Particulate Matter Pollution Prevention and Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University; Tian
- 3Divisions of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and Engineering and Applied Science, California Institute of Technology; Pasadena, CA, USA.
- 4Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Black carbon (BC) strongly absorbs solar radiation, while its warming effect on climate is poorly quantified. A key challenge is to accurately assess BC light absorption after being mixed with non-BC components. However, there has consistently been a large observation-modeling gap in BC light absorption estimation, reflecting the insufficient understanding of realistic BC complexity. Here we conduct comprehensive in-situ measurements of BC single-particle microphysics, e.g., size, coating amounts, density, and shape, along with optical closure calculation. Specifically, the observed particle-to-particle heterogeneities in size and coating, and the non-spherical BC shape only explain the lower observed BC absorption by ~20% and ~30%, respectively. A remaining gap for fully aged spherical BC-containing particles is related to the off-center BC core position. The global climate model assessment shows that fully accounting for the observed BC complexity in the aerosol microphysical representation reduces the global BC direct radiative forcing by up to 23%.
How to cite: Peng, Y., Huang, X.-F., Wei, J., Peng, J., He, L.-Y., Seinfeld, J. H., and Wang, Y.: Microphysical complexity of black carbon particles restricts their warming potential, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-4732, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-4732, 2026.
