Sensitivity of dynamic aging on the climate effects of black carbon aerosols over East Asia in summer
- 1Nanjing University (Nanjing, China)
Abstract
The climate effects of black carbon (BC) remain highly uncertain, and one critical process that requires accurate representation in climate models is BC aging. This study implements a dynamic aging scheme, which accounts for both condensation and coagulation processes, into the regional climate and chemistry coupled model RegCM-Chem to evaluate the BC climate effects over East Asia in summer. Results indicate that in heavily polluted regions such as the North China Plain and the Sichuan Basin, the BC aging timescale is shorter than 10 h, promoting the formation and wet deposition of hydrophilic BC, which reduces the BC column burden over East Asia by an average of 0.12 mg m ⁻² . Conversely, BC surface concentrations and optical depth exhibit an increase over eastern China due to the compensation of reduced dry deposition. The strengthened BC direct effects favor the development of the East Asian summer monsoon and enhance moisture convergence and cloud fraction in southern China. Additionally, accelerated aging also promotes increases in cloud droplet number concentrations and cloud optical depth. Under the dynamic aging scheme, the effective radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere over East Asia due to BC–radiation interactions, BC–cloud interactions and BC–radiation–cloud interactions are +3.60, −0.58 and +0.90 W m ⁻² , respectively. The climate effects of BC exhibit pronounced nonlinearity driven by adjustments in circulation and cloud. Overall, BC induces a much drier and warmer surface in northern China, whereas southern China experiences the opposite effect.
Versions
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BibTeX
@article{gao2026sensitivity,
title = {{Sensitivity of dynamic aging on the climate effects of black carbon aerosols over East Asia in summer}},
author = {Peng Gao and Bingliang Zhuang and Yaxin Hu and Yinan Zhou and Runqi Zhao and Qianqian Wang and Shu Li and Tijian Wang and Mengmeng Li and Min Xie},
journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.5194/acp-26-13861-2026},
url = {https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/26/13861/2026/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Sensitivity of dynamic aging on the climate effects of black carbon aerosols over East Asia in summer
AU - Peng Gao
AU - Bingliang Zhuang
AU - Yaxin Hu
AU - Yinan Zhou
AU - Runqi Zhao
AU - Qianqian Wang
AU - Shu Li
AU - Tijian Wang
AU - Mengmeng Li
AU - Min Xie
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
JO - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
DO - 10.5194/acp-26-13861-2026
UR - https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/26/13861/2026/
AB - The climate effects of black carbon (BC) remain highly uncertain, and one critical process that requires accurate representation in climate models is BC aging. This study implements a dynamic aging scheme, which accounts for both condensation and coagulation processes, into the regional climate and chemistry coupled model RegCM-Chem to evaluate the BC climate effects over East Asia in summer. Results indicate that in heavily polluted regions such as the North China Plain and the Sichuan Basin, the BC aging timescale is shorter than 10 h, promoting the formation and wet deposition of hydrophilic BC, which reduces the BC column burden over East Asia by an average of 0.12 mg m ⁻² . Conversely, BC surface concentrations and optical depth exhibit an increase over eastern China due to the compensation of reduced dry deposition. The strengthened BC direct effects favor the development of the East Asian summer monsoon and enhance moisture convergence and cloud fraction in southern China. Additionally, accelerated aging also promotes increases in cloud droplet number concentrations and cloud optical depth. Under the dynamic aging scheme, the effective radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere over East Asia due to BC–radiation interactions, BC–cloud interactions and BC–radiation–cloud interactions are +3.60, −0.58 and +0.90 W m ⁻² , respectively. The climate effects of BC exhibit pronounced nonlinearity driven by adjustments in circulation and cloud. Overall, BC induces a much drier and warmer surface in northern China, whereas southern China experiences the opposite effect.
SN - 1680-7324
ER -