Summary

This volume focuses on the synthesis of emerging knowledge of the atmospheric aerosol systems, assessment of the validity and usefulness of existing frameworks, and the development of robust aerosol system descriptions on scales ranging from the interpretation of laboratory data to assessment of global impacts.

Suspended particulate material in the atmosphere gives rise to a number of poorly determined problems of major current concern. Direct and indirect radiative forcing (the ability of aerosol particles to affect the Earth's radiation budget) each carries larger uncertainties than all other agents of climate change. Furthermore, there are significant challenges associated with the uncertainties of the impacts of particulate material on air quality and human health.

A significant contributor to these uncertainties is the vast heterogeneity in the distribution of aerosols by virtue of their disparate sources (both primary and secondary) and transformations in the moist oxidising atmosphere. The complexity of aerosol precursors and variability in the oxidising environment leads to a highly variable loading of particles of widely ranging size, age and property.

The topics covered in this volume include:

* Formation,

* Transformation,

* Fate, and

* Impacts of tropospheric aerosols.