Study advances understanding of anthropogenic effects on climate change

Anthropogenic aerosols—aerosols originating from human activity—and greenhouse gases, or GHGs, have helped modulate the storage and distribution of heat in oceans since the industrial age. Isolating and quantifying the effects of both forcers using coupled climate model simulations, a University of California, Riverside-led team has found that anthropogenic aerosols and GHGs have played distinct roles in the world's oceans in shaping the pattern of heat uptake, redistribution, and storage.