Coherence between seasonal cycles of dimethyl sulphide, methanesulphonate and sulphate in marine air
Abstract
Twenty months of data from a clean marine site at 40 deg S are presented which confirm the connection between atmospheric dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and aerosol sulfur species that is central to the hypothesis of Charlson et al. (1987) that marine phytoplankton might control cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) populations. The relationships between DMS, aerosol sulfate, and CCN are nonlinear, implying that at this site there would be significant nonlinearities in the climate feedback mechanism. The data on atmospheric sulfur species show a strong seasonal cycle, indicating that it should be possible to look for large, natural, seasonal variations in cloud albedo as a rigorous test of the hypothesis of Charlson et al.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- January 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1038/349404a0
- Bibcode:
- 1991Natur.349..404A
- Keywords:
-
- Air;
- Annual Variations;
- Atmospheric Composition;
- Marine Environments;
- Methyl Compounds;
- Sulfur Compounds;
- Aerosols;
- Climatology;
- Clouds (Meteorology);
- Condensation Nuclei;
- Phytoplankton;
- Geophysics