Abstract Anthropogenic emissions over China have recently declined due to environmental actions. This work estimates the sensitivity of sulfate aerosol (SO4 ${\text{SO}}{4}$) concentration to the amount of SO2 ${\text{SO}}{2}$ emissions reduction over China from 2010 to 2020 using an Earth system model with two different aerosol representations. We find that a larger rate of SO2 ${\text{SO}}{2}$ emissions decline over 2010–2020 from an updated Chinese emission inventory leads to improvement in modeled SO2 ${\text{SO}}{2}$ and SO4 ${\text{SO}}{4}$ concentrations when evaluated with targeted airborne observations from the Asian summer monsoon region from the 2022 Asian summer monsoon Chemical and Climate Impact Project. Updated Chinese SO2 ${\text{SO}}{2}$ emissions reduce SO4 ${\text{SO}}{4}$ concentration by >20% at 200 hPa over the North Pacific, and by >7% at 100 hPa throughout the tropics. These SO4 ${\text{SO}}{4}$ reductions result in an increase to global net instantaneous radiative forcing of ∼ ${\sim} $0.10–0.15 W m−2 ${\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$ by 2020, with regional effects up to ∼ ${\sim} $6 times greater.
Observations from the Little Bunker
Last updated: February 24, 2026 10:22 PM
Atmospheric CO₂
429.9 ppm
+17.3
ppm/year
Atmospheric CH₄
1946.47 ppb
+6.49
ppb/year
Global Temperature
+1.48 °C
Peak: +1.73°C
World Population
8.1 billion
+67
million/year