The aerosol radiative effects of uncontrolled combustion of domestic waste

Abstract

Open, uncontrolled combustion of domestic waste is a potentially significant source of aerosol; however, this aerosol source is not generally included in many global emissions inventories. To provide a first estimate of the aerosol radiative impacts from domestic-waste combustion, we incorporate the Wiedinmyer et al. (2014) emissions inventory into GEOS-Chem-TOMAS, a global chemical-transport model with online aerosol microphysics. We find domestic-waste combustion increases global-mean black carbon and organic aerosol concentrations by 8 and 6 %, respectively, and by greater than 40 % in some regions. Due to uncertainties regarding aerosol optical properties, we estimate the globally averaged aerosol direct radiative effect to range from −5 to −20 mW m[superscript −2]; however, this range increases from −40 to +4 mW m[superscript −2] when we consider uncertainties in emission mass and size distribution. In some regions with significant waste combustion, such as India and China, the aerosol direct radiative effect may exceed −0.4 W m[superscript −2]. Similarly, we estimate a cloud-albedo aerosol indirect effect of −13 mW m[superscript −2], with a range of −4 to −49 mW m[superscript −2] due to emission uncertainties. In the regions with significant waste combustion, the cloud-albedo aerosol indirect effect may exceed −0.4 W m[superscript −2].