Importance of Uncertainties in the Spatial Distribution of Preindustrial Wildfires for Estimating Aerosol Radiative Forcing

Abstract Uncertainty in preindustrial aerosol emissions, including fires, is one of the largest sources uncertainty estimating anthropogenic radiative forcing. Here, we quantify range forcing associated with location and magnitude fire emissions a climate model based on four emission estimates. With varied among estimates, find change from present‐day to between −0.4 0.3 W/m 2 for direct −1.8 0.6 cloud albedo Altering only spatial distribution fires fixed adds previously unaccounted 25% total range. Future studies must account other as regional differences contribute substantial additional estimates resultant sensitivity.