The unintended climatic implications of aerosol and precursor emission reductions implemented to protect public health are not well understood. 

I will present research investigating the mean and extreme temperature, cloud, and precipitation response to regional changes in aerosol emissions using three coupled chemistry-climate models: NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Coupled Model 3 (GFDL-CM3), NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM1), and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies ModelE2 (GISS-E2). 

My approach contrasts a long present-day control simulation from each model with fourteen individual aerosol emissions perturbation simulations. 

I will discuss responses and propose physical mechanisms for local and remote precipitation and temperature responses to these individual regional aerosol perturbations around the world. In particular, I will discuss connections to the location of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, the West African monsoon and Sahel drought, the South Asian monsoon, and projections onto known modes of climatic variability such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. 

I will also show how temperature and precipitation extremes (such as heatwaves and droughts) can be impacted by changing aerosol emissions. Finally, I will present my vision for future directions of research in this field.