Courts are increasingly being asked to weigh in on countries’ climate obligations - Copyright AFP/File INA FASSBENDER

A researcher has laid the foundation for our understanding of how small particles and gases that accumulate in the atmosphere contribute to climate change. This knowledge is vitally important for combatting global warming.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is now awarding the scientist – Veerabhadran Ramanathan – the Crafoord Prize in Geosciences, worth eight million Swedish kronor.

The prize is “for fundamental contributions to our understanding of how aerosol particles and other climate pollutants influence the atmospheric energy balance and the Earth system.”

Carbon dioxide emissions are not solely responsible for climate change. Other substances and small particles, like aerosols, also have an impact on the climate. One researcher who has made valuable contributions that show how this complex system is interconnected is Veerabhadran Ramanathan, University of California San Diego.

“He has expanded our view of how humankind is affecting the atmosphere’s composition, the climate and air quality, and how these three interact,” states Ilona Riipinen, professor of atmospheric sciences at Stockholm University and member of the Crafoord Prize Committee for Geosciences.

Already in the 1980s

As early as the 1980s, Professor Ramanathan played an important role in NASA’s use of satellites to measure Earth’s energy budget – the balance between energy from the Sun that reaches Earth in the form of radiation and the heat that Earth then emits back into space. The results showed that greenhouse gases from human activities are trapping an increasing proportion of the re-radiation in the atmosphere and thus contributing to global warming.

Ramanathan also studied how CFCs, known as freons from refrigerators and spray cans, not only affected the ozone layer, but the climate as well. The scientist continued to take an interest in various forms of aerosols, tiny particles, in the atmosphere.

In a large experiment in the Indian Ocean, researchers observed that the air contained high levels of pollutants – even far out at sea. Some of these dark aerosols, such as soot particles, absorb radiation and can thus contribute to heating the atmosphere.

Practical significance

This new knowledge has had great practical significance and formed the basis for international agreements. Ramanathan has influenced many people, from politicians to popes.

Based on fundamental principals

In many ways, the prize shows that climate science is based on the best possible observations and fundamental principles of physics and chemistry. It gives me a forum to talk about the science of climate change and build public trust in climate science.

The Crafoord Prize is awarded in partnership between the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and the Crafoord Foundation in Lund, Sweden. The Academy is responsible for selecting the laureates. The disciplines, which change every year, are mathematics and astronomy, polyarthritis (systemic diseases that cause inflammation in the joints) geosciences and biosciences.

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal’s Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.