Aerosols, Clouds and Recent Trends in Earth’s Energy Imbalance

Prof. Brian Soden

University of Miami

Monday April 21, 2025, 2 PM ET

Abstract:

Differences in modeling the effective radiative forcing from aerosol-cloud interactions represents the largest source of uncertainty in historical anthropogenic forcing. This uncertainty limits our ability to constrain estimates of climate sensitivity and make accurate projections of future climate change. The forcing from aerosols, even in recent decades, is not well known, but evidence suggests that the cooling effect of aerosols has weakened over the past several decades. This reduction in aerosols is believed to be a key contributor to the growing imbalance in Earth’s energy budget, which has nearly doubled over the past two decades. We use satellite observations of aerosol and cloud properties with a modified “cloud controlling factor” analysis in an attempt to: i) better constrain climate model estimates of the effective radiative forcing from aerosol-cloud interactions; and ii) quantify the contributions of aerosol-cloud interactions to the recent trends in Earth’s Energy Imbalance.

Biosketch:

Dr. Brian Soden is a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School. He received a B.S. degree from the University of Miami, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. Before returning to the University of Miami, Dr. Soden was a Visiting Scientist and Lecturer at Princeton University, and a Physical Scientist with NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. He specializes in the use of satellite observations to test and improve computer simulations of Earth’s climate. His research focuses on understanding the sensitivity of Earth’s climate to increasing greenhouse gases and the response of extreme weather events to the resultant warming. Dr. Soden is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union, and served as a Lead Author of the 2007 and 2013 reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Webinar:

Event site: https://go.umd.edu/soden

Zoom Webinar: https://go.umd.edu/sodenwebinar

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Cazzy Medley: cazzy@umd.edu

Resources:

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