Over the coming decades, it is expected that the spatial pattern of anthropogenic aerosol will change dramatically and the global aerosol composition will become relatively more absorbing. Yet, the climatic impact of this evolving spatial pattern of absorbing aerosol has received relatively little attention, in particular its impact on global-mean effective radiative forcing. Here, using model experiments, we show that the effective radiative forcing from absorbing aerosol varies strongly depending on their location, driven by rapid adjustments of clouds and circulation. Our experiments generate positive effective radiative forcing in response to aerosol absorption throughout the midlatitudes and most of the tropical regions, and a strong ‘hot spot’ of negative effective radiative forcing in response to aerosol absorption over the tropical Western Pacific. Further, these diverse responses can be robustly attributed to changes in atmospheric dynamics and highlight the importance of this ‘aerosol pattern effect’ for transient forcing from regional biomass-burning aerosol.

未来几十年，预计人为气溶胶的空间格局将发生巨大变化，全球气溶胶成分将变得相对更具吸引力。然而，这种不断变化的吸收气溶胶的空间格局对气候的影响却相对较少受到关注，特别是它对全球平均有效辐射强迫的影响。在这里，使用模型实验，我们表明吸收气溶胶的有效辐射强迫根据它们的位置而变化很大，这是由云和环流的快速调整驱动的。我们的实验产生积极的有效辐射强迫，以响应整个中纬度地区和大部分热带地区的气溶胶吸收，以及响应热带西太平洋气溶胶吸收的负有效辐射强迫的强大“热点”。此外，这些不同的响应可以强有力地归因于大气动力学的变化，并突出了这种“气溶胶模式效应”对于区域燃烧生物质气溶胶的瞬态强迫的重要性。