Aerosol effective radiative forcing increases Earth’s energy imbalance in recent decades
stems from a global decline in cloud droplet number concentration driven by decreasing anthropogenic aerosol emissions. It is of similar magnitude as the combined instantaneous forcing trend from greenhouse gases and aerosol-radiation interactions. Our results may reduce the gap between the simulated and observed shortwave contribution to EEI trends while implying a weak shortwave cloud feedback. They also suggest a stronger aerosol forcing than the multi-model mean.
Authors
- Tianle Yuan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2187-3017)
- Lazaros Oreopoulos (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6061-6905)
- Shiv Priyam Raghuraman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6589-0276)
- Mian Chin
- Ryan Kramer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-0674)
- Robert Wood (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1401-3828)
- Hua Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2499-0566)
Institutions
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (US)
- University of Washington (US)
- Advanced Technology and Research Corporation (United States) (US)
- Science and Technology Corporation (Norway) (NO)
- Science and Technology Corporation (United States) (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-05-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-72926-3
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Biological and Environmental Research
- Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research