Aerosols influence the temperature in the atmosphere. Because of this they can have a cooling or warming effect, depending on their type and concentration.

Atmospheric aerosols that originate from the suspension of minerals in the ground are called mineral dust. Even though human activities lead to an increase in dust pollution in the atmosphere, mineral dust is considered to be a natural aerosol. The Sahara is the main source of mineral dust, which subsequently spreads across the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas to the northern parts of South America, Central America, North America and Europe. It plays a significant role with regard to the supply of nutrients to the Amazon rainforest. The Gobi desert is another source of dust in the atmosphere, which affects East Asia and the western parts of North America.

Aerosol particles that originate from smouldering combustion can be found for a much longer period of time compared to the relatively short duration of flaming fire. Smoke particles of smouldering origin are generally less absorbent than particles stemming from flaming combustion because of their lower content of black carbon.

Fires in boreal woods are characterised by a predominant flaming phase and therefore release significant amounts of black carbon. Due to their high intensity these fires create aerosol particles dominated by smoke.  These are generally characterised by high absorption.

Sea salt and water dominate in maritime aerosols above the tropical Pacific Ocean. In that region the aerosol optical thickness, a measure for the optical effective mass of aerosols, is stable at medium level.  Above the tropical and subtropical Atlantic the aerosol optical thickness is significantly higher – due to the frequent presence of dust, smoke and urban / industrial aerosols.

Urban aerosols consist of particles of the so-called fine and coarse modes. Based on the differences in the observed properties two types of urban aerosols are usually distinguished: urban clean aerosols are characterised by a fine mode consisting of water and soluble material (e.g. sulphates and ammonium nitrate) which weakly absorb sunlight. Urban polluted aersols have a large number of particles with carbon-containing materials stemming from combustion processes and characterised by high absorption.