Special Issue for the 9th International Conference on Carbonaceous Particles in the Atmosphere

Carbonaceous particles are a minor constituent of the atmosphere but have a profound effect on air quality, human health, visibility, and climate. The importance of carbonaceous particles has been increasingly recognized and has become a mainstream topic at numerous conferences. Such was not the case in 1978, when the 1st International Conference on Carbonaceous Particles in the Atmosphere (ICCPA), or “Carbon Conference” as it is widely known, was introduced as a new forum to bring together scientists who were just beginning to reveal the importance and complexity of carbonaceous particles in the environment. Table 1 lists the conference dates, venues in the series as well as the proceedings, and special issues resulting form the meetings. Penner and Novakov (1996) provide an excellent historical perspective to the early ICCPA Conferences. Thirty years later, the 9th in this conference series was held at its inception site, Berkeley, California, attended by 160 scientists from 31 countries, and featuring both new and old themes in 49 oral and 83 poster presentations. Topics covered such areas as historical trends in black carbon aerosol, ambient concentrations, analytic techniques, secondary aerosol formation, biogenic, biomass, and HULIS¹ characterization, optical properties, and regional and global climate effects. The conference website, http://iccpa.lbl.gov/, holds the agenda, as well as many presentations, for the 9th ICCPA. The 10th ICCPA is tentatively scheduled for 2011 in Vienna, Austria.