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1. Investigation of aerosol–cloud interactions under different absorptive aerosol regimes using Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) southern Great Plains (SGP) ground-based measurements

   https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3483-2020  

   Zheng, Xiaojian ; Xi, Baike ; Dong, Xiquan ; Logan, Timothy ; Wang, Yuan ; Wu, Peng ( January 2020 , Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract. The aerosol indirect effect on cloud microphysical and radiative propertiesis one of the largest uncertainties in climate simulations. In order toinvestigate the aerosol–cloud interactions, a total of 16 low-level stratuscloud cases under daytime coupled boundary-layer conditions are selectedover the southern Great Plains (SGP) region of the United States. Thephysicochemical properties of aerosols and their impacts on cloudmicrophysical properties are examined using data collected from theDepartment of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facility at the SGP site. The aerosol–cloud interaction index (ACIr) is used to quantify the aerosol impacts with respect to cloud-droplet effective radius. The mean value of ACIr calculated from all selected samples is0.145±0.05 and ranges from 0.09 to 0.24 at a range of cloudliquid water paths (LWPs; LWP=20–300 g m−2). The magnitude of ACIr decreases with an increasing LWP, which suggests a diminished cloud microphysical response to aerosol loading, presumably due to enhanced condensational growth processes and enlarged particle sizes. The impact of aerosols with different light-absorbing abilities on the sensitivity of cloud microphysical responses is also investigated. In the presence of weak light-absorbing aerosols, the low-level clouds feature a higher number concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (NCCN) and smaller effective radii (re), while the opposite is true for strong light-absorbing aerosols. Furthermore, the mean activation ratio of aerosols to CCN (NCCN∕Na) for weakly (strongly) absorbing aerosols is 0.54 (0.45), owing to the aerosol microphysical effects, particularly the different aerosol compositions inferred by their absorptive properties. In terms of the sensitivity of cloud-droplet number concentration (Nd) to NCCN, the fraction of CCN that converted to cloud droplets (Nd∕NCCN) for the weakly (strongly) absorptive regime is 0.69 (0.54). The measured ACIr values in the weakly absorptive regime arerelatively higher, indicating that clouds have greater microphysicalresponses to aerosols, owing to the favorable thermodynamic condition. Thereduced ACIr values in the strongly absorptive regime are due to the cloud-layer heating effect induced by strong light-absorbing aerosols. Consequently, we expect larger shortwave radiative cooling effects from clouds in the weakly absorptive regime than those in the strongly absorptive regime. 

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2. East Asian Study of Tropospheric Aerosols and their Impact on Regional Clouds, Precipitation, and Climate (EAST‐AIR CPC )

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD030758  

   Li, Zhanqing ; Wang, Yuan ; Guo, Jianping ; Zhao, Chuanfeng ; Cribb, Maureen C. ; Dong, Xiquan ; Fan, Jiwen ; Gong, Daoyi ; Huang, Jianping ; Jiang, Mengjiao ; et al ( December 2019 , Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres)

   Aerosols have significant and complex impacts on regional climate in East Asia. Cloud‐aerosol‐precipitation interactions (CAPI) remain most challenging in climate studies. The quantitative understanding of CAPI requires good knowledge of aerosols, ranging from their formation, composition, transport, and their radiative, hygroscopic, and microphysical properties. A comprehensive review is presented here centered on the CAPI based chiefly, but not limited to, publications in the special section named EAST‐AIRcpc concerning (1) observations of aerosol loading and properties, (2) relationships between aerosols and meteorological variables affecting CAPI, (3) mechanisms behind CAPI, and (4) quantification of CAPI and their impact on climate. Heavy aerosol loading in East Asia has significant radiative effects by reducing surface radiation, increasing the air temperature, and lowering the boundary layer height. A key factor is aerosol absorption, which is particularly strong in central China. This absorption can have a wide range of impacts such as creating an imbalance of aerosol radiative forcing at the top and bottom of the atmosphere, leading to inconsistent retrievals of cloud variables from space‐borne and ground‐based instruments. Aerosol radiative forcing can delay or suppress the initiation and development of convective clouds whose microphysics can be further altered by the microphysical effect of aerosols. For the same cloud thickness, the likelihood of precipitation is influenced by aerosols: suppressing light rain and enhancing heavy rain, delaying but intensifying thunderstorms, and reducing the onset of isolated showers in most parts of China. Rainfall has become more inhomogeneous and more extreme in the heavily polluted urban regions.

    

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3. A Case Study of Airmass Transformation and Cloud Formation at Summit, Greenland

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-19-0056.1  

   Solomon, Amy ; Shupe, Matthew D. ( September 2019 , Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences)

   This study investigates cloud formation and transitions in cloud types at Summit, Greenland, during 16–22 September 2010, when a warm, moist air mass was advected to Greenland from lower latitudes. During this period there was a sharp transition between high ice clouds and the formation of a lower stratocumulus deck at Summit. A regional mesoscale model is used to investigate the air masses that form these cloud systems. It is found that the high ice clouds form in originally warm, moist air masses that radiatively cool while being transported to Summit. A sensitivity study removing high ice clouds demonstrates that the primary impact of these clouds at Summit is to reduce cloud liquid water embedded within the ice cloud and water vapor in the boundary layer due to vapor deposition on snow. The mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds form at the base of cold, dry air masses advected from the northwest above 4 km. The net surface radiative fluxes during the stratocumulus period are at least 20 W m−2 larger than during the ice cloud period, indicating that, in seasons other than summer, cold, dry air masses advected to Summit above the boundary layer may radiatively warm the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet more effectively than warm, moist air masses advected from lower latitudes.

    

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4. A dichotomy between model responses of tropical ascent and descent to surface warming

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-019-0066-8  

   Su, Hui ; Zhai, Chengxing ; Jiang, Jonathan H. ; Wu, Longtao ; Neelin, J. David ; Yung, Yuk L. ( March 2019 , npj Climate and Atmospheric Science)

   Simulations of tropical atmospheric circulation response to surface warming vary substantially across models, causing large uncertainties in projections of regional precipitation change. Understanding the physical processes that drive the model spread in tropical circulation changes is critically needed. Here we employ the basic mass balance and energetic constraints on tropical circulation to identify the dominant factors that determine multidecadal circulation strength and area changes in climate models. We show that the models produce a robust weakening of descent rate under warming regardless of surface warming patterns; however, ascent rate change exhibits inter-model spread twice as large as descent rate because of diverse model responses in the radiative effects of clouds, water vapor, and aerosols. As ascent area change is dictated by the disparate descent and ascent rate changes due to the mass budget and the inter-model spread in descent rate change is small, the model spread in ascent area change is dominated by that of ascent rate change, resulting in a strong anti-correlation of –0.85 between the fractional changes of ascent strength and area across 77 climate model simulations. This anti-correlation leads to a corresponding inverse relationship between the rates of precipitation intensifying and narrowing of the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ), suggesting tropical ascent area change can be potentially used to constrain the ITCZ precipitation change. Longwave cloud radiative effect at the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) in the convective region is identified to be a major source of uncertainties for tropical ascent rate change and thus for regional precipitation change.

    

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5. The Impacts of Smoke Emitted from Boreal Forest Wildfires on the High Latitude Radiative Energy Budget—A Case Study of the 2002 Yakutsk Wildfires

   https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9100410  

   Lu, Zheng ; Sokolik, Irina ( October 2018 , Atmosphere)

   We examine the 2002 Yakutsk wildfire event and simulate the impacts of smoke aerosols on local radiative energy budget, using the WRF-Chem-SMOKE model. When comparing satellite retrievals (the Surface Radiation Budget (SRB) dataset) with model simulations, we found that the agreement is generally good, except for the regions where the model predicts too few clouds or SRB misclassifies strong smoke plumes as clouds. We also found that the smoke-induced changes in upward shortwave fluxes at top of atmosphere (TOA) vary under different burning and meteorological conditions. In the first period of the fire season (9–12 August), smoke particles cause a warming effect around 3 W/m2, mainly through functioning as ice nuclei, which deplete the cloud water amount in the frontal system. At the beginning of the second period of the fire season (19–20 August), large amounts of pre-existing smoke particles cause a strong cooling effect of −8 W/m2. This is offset by the warming effect caused by relatively small amounts of cloud condensation nuclei increases, which promotes the rain formation and depletes the cloud water amount. After the cloud decks are well mixed with smoke plumes (21–22 August), the first indirect and direct effects of smoke together lead to a cooling of −10 W/m2. These results highlight the importance of meso-scale modeling efforts in estimating the smoke-induced changes in the radiative energy budget over high latitudes. 

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