Friday, 19. June 2026 5:00 pm Aerosols - about tiny particles with global climate effects
Prof. Dr. Stephanie Fiedler, Institut für Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg Aerosols - about tiny particles with global climate effects Prof. Dr. Stephanie Fiedler, Institute of Environmental Physics Aerosols are small airborne particles that are surrounding us but are mostly invisible to our eyes. Multiple natural and anthropogenic emission sources lead to various chemical compositions of aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere. Influences of aerosols on radiative transfer and cloud microphysical processes are qualitatively understood, but the magnitudes of these effects are under debate with important implication for understanding past and future climate change. In this colloquium, I will give a glimpse on aerosol effects on climate, explain some reasons for uncertainties in our understanding of their effects on climate, and outline how we can make progress despite persistent model uncertainty. Based on own research activities, I will share results from our field campaigns to measure aerosol and meteorological states in marine environments, examples of kilometre-scale modelling for dust from the Sahara Desert and first completed steps towards advancing the understanding of dust outbreaks using machine learning methods and satellite images. We will also see model-to-model differences for anthropogenic aerosol effects from global climate model simulations, and new CMIP aerosol data for use in climate simulations that inform the next IPCC assessment report of climate change. Looking ahead, I will introduce some of the plans for advancing the research field, e.g., through leading the new experiment protocol of the Aerosol and Chemistry Model Intercomparison Project, to which the most complex Earth system models currently available worldwide will contribute simulations.
