Jointly sponsored with WCRP-SPARC, AC&C sought to improve the representation of chemistry/climate interactions in models. Activities within AC&C were coordinated with modeling activities such as SPARC’s Chemistry-Climate Model Validation Activity (CCMVal), the Aerosol Comparisons between Observations and Models (AeroCom) project, and the Task Force on Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (HTAP) to assure maximum efficiency in model runs, meeting planning, and resources.

ACCMIP is providing extensive coordinated model simulations, diagnostics, and evaluations of the effect of short-lived species on climate, in coordination with the climate model intercomparison effort (CMIP5). The main focus is on the role of tropospheric ozone and aerosols, which both have substantial climate forcing that vary widely in space and time. More information can be found at http://www.giss.nasa.gov/projects/accmip/.

Recent Workshops

• The purpose of ACEED was to create an education and training program that would establish atmospheric chemistry programs at the undergraduate level in universities in developing countries. ACEED also sought to provide graduate research assistantships at cooperating universities with Ph.D. programs in atmospheric chemistry for qualified students from developing countries.

Research on atmospheric chemistry is motivated by the possible impacts on climate, ecosystems, and human health caused by the changes of atmospheric composition. Research ranges from laboratory measurements on the formation of pollutants, field campaigns on detailed gas and aerosol composition, long term observations at background stations (trend detection), satellite observations, regional and global scale modeling, focusing on short-term periods (weeks) to multi-decadal composition change.

BIBEX was founded in 1990 with the primary mission to:

BATREX was created through the merging of four IGAC activities that all focused on trace gas emissions from terrestrial systems: BATGE, HESS, RICE, and TRAGEX.

BATGE was an activity that provided research on nitrous oxide (N2O) and the compound effects of nitrogen sinks. It focused on trace gas emissions from terrestrial systems. BATGE helped to gain understanding of what factors control these fluxes and assessed the effects of land use change. BATGE was part of IGAC’s Phase I Tropical Atmospheric Chemistry focus and later merged into IGAC’s Biosphere-Atmosphere Trace Gas Exchange (BATREX) activity.

Bounding the Role of Black Carbon in Climate was a focused effort to produce an assessment report that summarized the most current knowledge on black carbon (BC) and its role in climate as well as provide a best estimate and uncertainty range for the radiative forcing by BC. The report was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

DARF was initiated to determine the magnitude, uncertainty, chemical sources, and temporal and spatial variations of the direct radiative climate forcing by aerosols of various types, through observation as opposed to model output.

• APARE aimed to understand processes controlling atmospheric chemistry in the rapidly developing East Asia region and the effects of airborne pollutants (ozone in particular) on downwind marine regions. APARE lead to a publication in a Terrestrial, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in September 1995. More information regarding APARE and project results can be found here.