Abstract
Sulfur aerosols impact human health, ecosystems,
agriculture, and global and regional climate. A new annual
estimate of anthropogenic global and regional sulfur dioxide
emissions has been constructed spanning the period 1850–
2005 using a bottom-up mass balance method, calibrated to
country-level inventory data. Global emissions peaked in
the early 1970s and decreased until 2000, with an increase
in recent years due to increased emissions in China, international
shipping, and developing countries in general. An
uncertainty analysis was conducted including both random
and systemic uncertainties. The overall global uncertainty
in sulfur dioxide emissions is relatively small, but regional
uncertainties ranged up to 30%. The largest contributors to
uncertainty at present are emissions from China and international
shipping. Emissions were distributed on a 0.5 grid by
sector for use in coordinated climate model experiments.