Aerosol

Introduction References & Edit History Related Topics

Images & Videos

Aral Sea dust storm

A colorful world map shows swirling clouds of aerosols in green, purple, and red, with arrows pointing to different regions and a note reading: What are aerosols?

Smoke from Central American forest fires drifting over North America, as measured by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) on May 22, 1998.NASA's Earth Probe Mission satellite can detect smoke in the atmosphere and is thus able to monitor large fires from space. Aboard the satellite, TOMS measures aerosols, enabling scientists to create maps of the smoke's density.

World map of aerosol transport, Aug 1–Sep 14, 2024: Sahara dust (pink), wildfire smoke (orange/red), sea salt (blue), sulfates (green).

Aerosol: References & Edit History

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The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
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Article History

Type	Description	Contributor	Date
	Article title updated for style.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Nov 10, 2026
	Add new Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Aerosol Pollutants and Health: Role of Size and Chemical Composition.	Grace Young	Oct 10, 2026
	Media added.	Meg Matthias	Jan 08, 2026
	Added media.	Rick Livingston	Aug 28, 2025
	Add new Web site: AIP Publishing - The Journal of Chemical Physics - Perspective: Aerosol microphysics: From molecules to the chemical physics of aerosols.	Gloria Lotha	Jan 20, 2025
	Add new Web site: International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews - Pharmaceutical Aerosol: An Overview.	Aakanksha Gaur	Nov 26, 2024
	Add new Web site: University of Babylon - Aerosols.	Yamini Chauhan	Oct 04, 2024
	Add new Web site: Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment - Introduction to Aerosols.	Grace Young	Jun 14, 2024
	Add new Web site: Projects at Harvard - Aerosols.	Gloria Lotha	Mar 21, 2024
	Add new Web site: Nature - Nature Reviews Earth and Environment - Scattering and absorbing aerosols in the climate system.	Emily Rodriguez	Nov 22, 2023
	Add new Web site: National Geographic - Aerosols.	Gloria Lotha	Feb 19, 2020
	Photo depicting a dust storm over the Aral Sea added.	John P. Rafferty	Mar 09, 2012
	Text describing how aerosols affect climate added.	John P. Rafferty	Mar 09, 2012
	Added new Web site: Global Atmosphere Watch - Aerosols.	Gloria Lotha	Jan 16, 2007
	Added new Web site: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association - Atmospheric Chemistry Program.	Gaurav Shukla	Nov 15, 2006
	Added new Web site: NASA - Terra.	Dutta Promeet	Nov 15, 2006
	Article added to new online database.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Jul 20, 1998