Black Carbon

Katie Snider, David Ladd, Rob Reese, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA)

This video describes what black carbon is, where is comes from, and how it contributes to sea ice melt and global warming.

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Notes from our reviewers

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This short video would make a good introduction to a lesson on black carbon. It could be paired with existing lesson in the CLEAN collection: [link http://cleanet.org/resources/42706.html]
Black carbon is soot. Black carbon on the surface of sea ice contributes to the acceleration of sea ice melting by absorbing, rather than reflecting, sunlight. Because black carbon is a particle, rather than a gas, it has a relatively short lifespan in the atmosphere; thus, reducing the amount of black carbon that people produce can have immediate impacts. Comments from expert scientist: This material uses simple language to clearly describe the role black carbon plays in the earth radiation budget. To date, black carbon is recognized having strong contribution to current global warming, only next to the green house gas, carbon dioxide.