Anthropogenic Sulfate Aerosols In China: Distribution And Implied Climate Impacts

Anthropogenic Sulfate Aerosols in China: Distribution and Implied Climate Impacts Guest contribution Y. Zhang''*, Q.X. Gao\ Z.H. Ren^ and Y.H. Ding' ^Institute For Atmospheric Physics, GKSS, Germany National Climate Center, Beijing, China Climate Change Research Center, Beijing, China Introduction Combustion of coal, which is the major energy source in China, is one of the most important anthropogenic processes to produce SC^. Chen et al (1995) estimated that production of SO: that is the precursor of sulfate aerosols is twice as high as that of NOx by the coal combustion in China. It was indicated also in their work, that the percentage of 864 is much higher than that of NOx in the rainfall in China. Therefore, the dominant chemical component of anthropogenic aerosols from coal combustion in China is sulfate. Previous researche revealed that sulfate aerosols have an importan