Impacts of Sulfate Injection Geoengineering on Particulate Matter with Diameter less than 2.5 μm

[2608.14928] Impacts of Sulfate Injection Geoengineering on Particulate Matter with Diameter less than 2.5 μm Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Physics > Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics arXiv:2608.14928 (physics) [Submitted on 14 Aug 2026] Title: Impacts of Sulfate Injection Geoengineering on Particulate Matter with Diameter less than 2.5 μm Authors: Lili Xia , Alan Robock , Simone Tilmes View a PDF of the paper titled Impacts of Sulfate Injection Geoengineering on Particulate Matter with Diameter less than 2.5 {\mu}m, by Lili Xia and 2 other authors View PDF Abstract: Particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 {\mu}m (PM2.5) is of great concern for human health. Here, for the first time, we examine the impact of sulfate aerosol geoengineering on PM2.5, using the output from the Geoengineering Large Ensemble (GLENS) project. GLENS is an ensemble of climate model simulations injecting SO2 into the stratosphere to balance RCP8.5 forcing using the Community Earth System Model, version 1. GLENS geoengineering reduces global averaged surface PM2.5 mass concentrations compared with RCP8.5 and also changes PM2.5 composition with more percentages of organic carbon and sulfate. The total reduction of PM2.5 is a result of less dust and sea salt concentrations. Dust emission is declined under GLENS geoengineering because of increased soil moisture and leaf area index over desert regions, and less emission of sea salt is due to slower wind speeds when geoengineering is applied. Excluding dust and sea salt, there is more global averaged PM2.5 under GLENS geoengineering relative to RCP8.5, predominantly due to more aerosol phase secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Since gas precursors of SOA are prescribed in the simulations, a cooler environment with geoengineering tends to transfer more gas phase SOA to aerosol phase. Changes in PM2.5 concentration and composition with applied geoengineering may have potential human health impact. Another new finding of this study is that the large amount of injected SO2 does not increase surface sulfate aerosol as a component of PM2.5, as the majority of sulfate aerosol reaching the boundary layer is in the coarse mode, which represents a very small fraction of the PM2.5. But the difference of deposition spatial distribution between geoengineering and RCP8.5 may have potential impacts on ecosystem. Comments: 29 pages, 11 figures Subjects: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2608.14928 [physics.ao-ph] (or arXiv:2608.14928v1 [physics.ao-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.14928 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Lili Xia [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 14 Aug 2026 22:35:58 UTC (3,985 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Impacts of Sulfate Injection Geoengineering on Particulate Matter with Diameter less than 2.5 {\mu}m, by Lili Xia and 2 other authors View PDF view license Current browse context: physics.ao-ph < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: physics References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... 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