Impact of aerosols and atmospheric thermodynamics on cloud properties within the climate system
نویسندگان
چکیده
[1] A combination of cloud-top and columnar droplet sizes derived from the multi Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) sensors reveals the sensitivity of the aerosols effect on cloud-precipitation processes due to environmental vertical thermodynamic structure. First, the magnitude of aerosol indirect effect could be larger with the analysis of columnar droplet sizes than that derived from the cloud-top droplet sizes since column-droplet size can account for the broader droplet spectra in the cloud layers. Second, a combination of cloud-top and columnar droplet sizes reveals that the warm rain process is prevented regardless of the aerosols concentration under high static stability such as when a strong temperature inversion exists, while a high aerosol concentration suppresses the warm rain formulation under low static stability.
منابع مشابه
Regional Effects of Aerosols on the Atmospheric Radiative Balance
Aerosols represent one of the greatest uncertainties in quantifying atmospheric sources of climate change. The role of aerosol particles in providing nucleation sites for cloud droplets is complex: this so-called “indirect effect” incorporates unsolved problems in atmospheric chemistry, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics. Much of this uncertainty lies in our inability to describe the processes...
متن کاملStudy of Aerosol/Cloud/Radiation Interactions Over the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Southern Great Plain Site
While considerable advances in the understanding of atmospheric processes and feedbacks in the climate system have led to a better representation of these mechanisms in general circulation models, the greatest uncertainty in predictability of future climate arises from clouds and their interactions with radiation. To explore this uncertainty, the cloud resolving model has evolved as one of the ...
متن کاملAbstract Title of Dissertation: Investigating Aerosol Effects on Clouds, Precipitation and Regional Climate in US and China by Means of Ground-based and Satellite Observations and a Global Climate Model
Title of Dissertation: Investigating Aerosol Effects on Clouds, Precipitation and Regional Climate in US and China by Means of Ground-based and Satellite Observations and a Global Climate Model Feng Niu, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Directed by: Dr. Zhanqing Li Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science/ Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center Aerosols affect climate by scattering/absorb...
متن کاملRemote Sensing of Tropospheric Aerosols from Space: Past, Present, and Future
Tropospheric aerosols are important components of the earth–atmosphere–ocean system, affecting climate through three primary mechanisms. First, direct radiative forcing results when radiation is scattered or absorbed by the aerosol itself. Scattering of shortwave radiation enhances the radiation reflected back to space, therefore increasing the reflectance (albedo) of the earth and cooling the ...
متن کاملImproving aerosol distributions below clouds by assimilating satellite-retrieved cloud droplet number.
Limitations in current capabilities to constrain aerosols adversely impact atmospheric simulations. Typically, aerosol burdens within models are constrained employing satellite aerosol optical properties, which are not available under cloudy conditions. Here we set the first steps to overcome the long-standing limitation that aerosols cannot be constrained using satellite remote sensing under c...
متن کامل