We quickly blamed greenhouse gases on the increasingly mild winters in Europe. In reality, the cause of the disappearance of cold waves, snow and blizzard is largely linked to ... pollution efforts. The decrease in the quantity of aerosols results in a radiative forcing, which itself generates other climatic phenomena in cascade. Explanations.
The reduction in aerosols, the main factor in winter warming
In fact, snow has been scarce for Christmas in France and throughout the rest of Europe for several years. The most obvious culprit: global warming due to CO2 emissions. Well, no: it would rather be the fault ... of strengthening regulations on air pollution, attests a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on February 3. "With regard to the winter climate, aerosols have an even greater impact than greenhouse gases on global warming," attests Jonathan Jiang, researcher at CalTech and co-author of the article. The researchers analyzed the frequency and intensity of cold episodes in Europe and Russia over the period 1970-2005 and revealed "the undeniable signature" of the reduction in aerosols on the rarefaction of cold winters.
23% of global warming attributed to falling particles
Atmospheric aerosols, mainly from urbanization and industrialization, constitute the second factor of climate change in the Earth's system after greenhouse gases. By reflecting and absorbing sunlight, particles of soot, sulphates or other compounds help to lower temperatures locally and modify the earth's radiation balance. A phenomenon called "lightening" and which exerts a radiative cooling of approximately -0,8 W / m2 at the global level according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, in Europe, aerosol emissions, especially that of sulphated aerosols, have greatly decreased thanks to policies to reduce pollution. According to a 2014 study by the French National Meteorological Research Center, the lightening explains 23% of the increase in surface temperature in Europe between 1980 and 2012, "contributing significantly to regional climate warming".
https://www.futura-sciences.com/planete/actualites/aerosols-hivers-trop-doux-europe-faute-reglementations-antipollution-55484/
This confirms the effectiveness of sulfur dioxide in its role of increasing albedo, with anti-pollution measures there is an opposite effect to that sought by geo-engineering.
