Publications by authors named "Sophia M Wensman"
Estimating fire emissions prior to the satellite era is challenging because observations are limited, leading to large uncertainties in the calculated aerosol climate forcing following the preindustrial era. This challenge further limits the ability of climate models to accurately project future climate change. Here, we reconstruct a gridded dataset of global biomass burning emissions from 1750 to 2010 using inverse analysis that leveraged a global array of 31 ice core records of black carbon deposition fluxes, two different historical emission inventories as a priori estimates, and emission-deposition sensitivities simulated by the atmospheric chemical transport model GEOS-Chem.
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- Polar and alpine ice records reveal the historical emissions of toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and thallium, offering insights into environmental changes over the last three millennia.
- While the Northern Hemisphere has been well-studied in relation to major historical events, the Southern Hemisphere's pollution levels and historical contexts before the late 19th century remain largely unexplored.
- Recent findings from East Antarctic ice cores indicate that lead pollution began in the 13th century, was exacerbated during the Spanish Colonial period, and aligns with significant global events similar to trends observed in the Northern Hemisphere.