Shipping regulations lead to large reduction in cloud perturbations

Watson-Parris, D, Christensen, MW, Laurenson, A, Clewley, D, Gryspeerdt, E and Stier, P 2022 Shipping regulations lead to large reduction in cloud perturbations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119 (41). 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206885119

Preview

Text pnas.2206885119.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract/Summary

Global shipping accounts for 13% of global emissions of SO2, which, once oxidized to sulfate aerosol, acts to cool the planet both directly by scattering sunlight and indirectly by increasing the albedo of clouds. This cooling due to sulfate aerosol offsets some of the warming effect of greenhouse gasses and is the largest uncertainty in determining the change in the Earth’s radiative balance by human activity. Ship tracks—the visible manifestation of the indirect of effect of ship emissions on clouds as quasi-linear features—have long provided an opportunity to quantify these effects. However, they have been arduous to catalog and typically studied only in particular regions for short periods of time. Using a machine-learning algorithm to automate their detection we catalog more than 1 million ship tracks to provide a global climatology. We use this to investigate the effect of stringent fuel regulations introduced by the International Maritime Organization in 2020 on their global prevalence since then, while accounting for the disruption in global commerce caused by COVID-19. We find a marked, but clearly nonlinear, decline in ship tracks globally: An 80% reduction in SOx emissions causes only a 25% reduction in the number of tracks detected.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Additional Keywords:	aerosol, climate, shipping, machine learning
Divisions:	Plymouth Marine Laboratory > National Capability categories > NERC Earth Observation Data Acquisition & Analysis Service (NEODAAS) Plymouth Marine Laboratory > Science Areas > Earth Observation Science and Applications
Depositing User:	S Hawkins
Date made live:	26 Oct 2022 10:23
Last Modified:	26 Oct 2022 10:23
URI:	https://plymsea.ac.uk/id/eprint/9815

Actions (login required)

View Item