Particulate pollution thought to be holding climate change in check by reflecting sunlight instead enhances warming when combined with airborne soot. An instrument that measures the chemical composition and optical properties of aerosols in real time has revealed that fresh soot quickly becomes coated with a spherical shell of other chemicals, such as sulfate and nitrate through light-driven chemical reactions. This lens-like shell enhances absorption of light by a factor of 1.6 over pure soot particles.
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