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Aerosols

The colour of smoke

Particles of smoke from natural and human-made fires absorb sunlight and contribute to global warming. Laboratory experiments suggest that smoke is often more absorbing than current numerical models of global climate assume.

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Figure 1: Multicoloured smoke.

DAVID R. FRAZIER PHOTOLIBRARY, INC. / ALAMY

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Correspondence to Nicolas Bellouin.

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Bellouin, N. The colour of smoke. Nature Geosci 7, 619–620 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2226

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