2025-04-24 All-Hands Presentation Meeting Notes

Aerosols as Drivers of Climate Risk

Geeta Persad
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Jackson School of Geosciences
The University of Texas at Austin

Abstract: 

Anthropogenic aerosol emissions are expected to change rapidly over the coming decades, driving strong, spatially complex trends in temperature, hydroclimate, and extreme events both near and far from emission sources. However, many policy-facing evaluations of near-term climate risk underrepresent aerosols’ complex and regionally diverse climate effects. In this talk, I lay out the ways in which current climate risk assessment processes obscure aerosol signals and argue that this constitutes a major missing element in society’s ability to prepare for future climate change. I present recent work that highlights the physical mechanisms via which the evolving spatial pattern of aerosol emissions produces unique fingerprints of climate hazards, such as heatwaves, fire weather, and hydroclimate shifts. Finally, I outline a pathway towards progress and call for greater interaction between the aerosol research, impact modeling, scenario development, and risk assessment communities. 

Date Apr 24, 2025 

Time

• PT: 8:30 am

• ET: 11:30 am

Call Info

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