Aerosol
An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in a gas. Examples are smoke, oceanic haze, air pollution, smog and CS gas. When they say aerosol most people mean an aerosol spray can or the spray it makes.
To differentiate suspensions from true solutions, the term sol evolved—originally meant to cover dispersions of tiny (sub-microscopic) particles in a liquid. With studies of dispersions in air, the term aerosol evolved and now embraces both liquid droplets, solid particles, and combinations of these.
Aerosol Media
- Fly Ash FHWA dot gov.jpg
Photomicrograph made with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM): Fly ash particles at 2,000× magnification. Most of the particles in this aerosol are nearly spherical.
- Aerosol-India.jpg
Aerosol pollution over northern India and Bangladesh
- Portrait of Global Aerosols.jpeg
Overview of large clouds of aerosols around Earth (green: smoke, blue: salt, yellow: dust, white: sulfuric)
- 20231206 Radiative forcing (warming influence) - global warming.svg
Aerosols have a cooling effect that is small compared to the radiative forcing (warming effect) of greenhouse gases.
- 1750- Radiative forcing - greenhouse gases and aerosols.svg
Hansen et al. (2025) wrote that the IPCC had underestimated aerosols' cooling effect, causing it to also underestimate climate sensitivity (Earth's responsiveness to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations).
- Aerosol 1.png
Schematic representation of primary and secondary aerosols
- Cond n evap.svg
Condensation and evaporation
