An official website of the United States government
Abstract Modeling the shortwave radiation balance over the Southern Ocean region remains a challenge for Earth system models. To investigate whether this is related to the representation of aerosol‐cloud interactions, we compared measurements of the total number concentration of sea spray‐generated particles within the Southern Ocean region to model predictions thereof. Measurements were conducted from a container laboratory aboard the R/VTangaroathroughout an austral summer voyage to the Ross Sea. We used source‐receptor modeling to calculate the sensitivity of our measurements to upwind surface fluxes. From this approach, we could constrain empirical parameterizations of sea spray surface flux based on surface wind speed and sea surface temperature. A newly tuned parameterization for the flux of sea spray particles based on the near‐surface wind speed is presented. Comparisons to existing model parameterizations revealed that present model parameterizations led to overestimations of sea spray concentrations. In contrast to previous studies, we found that including sea surface temperature as an explanatory variable did not substantially improve model‐measurement agreement. To test whether or not the parameterization may be applicable globally, we conducted a regression analysis using a database of in situ whitecap measurements. We found that the key fitting parameter within this regression agreed well with the parameterization of sea spray flux. Finally, we compared calculations from the best model of surface flux to boundary layer measurements collected onboard an aircraft throughout the Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES), finding good agreement overall.
more »
« less
Southern Ocean cloud and aerosol data: a compilation of measurements from the 2018 Southern Ocean Ross Sea Marine Ecosystems and Environment voyage
Abstract. Due to its remote location and extreme weather conditions, atmospheric in situmeasurements are rare in the Southern Ocean. As a result, aerosol–cloudinteractions in this region are poorly understood and remain a major source ofuncertainty in climate models. This, in turn, contributes substantially topersistent biases in climate model simulations such as the well-known positiveshortwave radiation bias at the surface, as well as biases in numericalweather prediction models and reanalyses. It has been shown in previousstudies that in situ and ground-based remote sensing measurements across theSouthern Ocean are critical for complementing satellite data sets due to theimportance of boundary layer and low-level cloud processes. These processesare poorly sampled by satellite-based measurements and are often obscured bymultiple overlying cloud layers. Satellite measurements also do not constrainthe aerosol–cloud processes very well with imprecise estimation of cloudcondensation nuclei. In this work, we present a comprehensive set of ship-basedaerosol and meteorological observations collected on the 6-weekSouthern Ocean Ross Sea Marine Ecosystem and Environment voyage(TAN1802) voyage of RV Tangaroa across the Southern Ocean, from Wellington, New Zealand, tothe Ross Sea, Antarctica. The voyage was carried out from 8 February to21 March 2018. Many distinct, but contemporaneous, data sets were collectedthroughout the voyage. The compiled data sets include measurements from arange of instruments, such as (i) meteorological conditions at the sea surfaceand profile measurements; (ii) the size and concentration of particles; (iii)trace gases dissolved in the ocean surface such as dimethyl sulfide andcarbonyl sulfide; (iv) and remotely sensed observations of low clouds. Here,we describe the voyage, the instruments, and data processing, and provide a briefoverview of some of the data products available. We encourage the scientificcommunity to use these measurements for further analysis and model evaluationstudies, in particular, for studies of Southern Ocean clouds, aerosol, andtheir interaction. The data sets presented in this study are publiclyavailable at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4060237 (Kremser et al., 2020).
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1660486
- PAR ID:
- 10324435
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Earth System Science Data
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 1866-3516
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 3115 to 3153
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Southern Ocean (S. Ocean) clouds are important for climate prediction. Yet previous global climate models failed to accurately represent cloud phase distributions in this observation‐sparse region. In this study, data from the Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol, Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES) experiment is compared to constrained simulations from a global climate model (the Community Atmosphere Model, CAM). Nudged versions of CAM are found to reproduce many of the features of detailed in situ observations, such as cloud location, cloud phase, and boundary layer structure. The simulation in CAM6 has improved its representation of S. Ocean clouds with adjustments to the ice nucleation and cloud microphysics schemes that permit more supercooled liquid. Comparisons between modeled and observed hydrometeor size distributions suggest that the modeled hydrometeor size distributions represent the dual peaked shape and form of observed distributions, which is remarkable given the scale difference between model and observations. Comparison to satellite observations of cloud physics is difficult due to model assumptions that do not match retrieval assumptions. Some biases in the model's representation of S. Ocean clouds and aerosols remain, but the detailed cloud physical parameterization provides a basis for process level improvement and direct comparisons to observations. This is crucial because cloud feedbacks and climate sensitivity are sensitive to the representation of S. Ocean clouds.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Stratocumulus clouds over the Southern Ocean have fewer droplets and are more likely to exist in the predominately supercooled phase than clouds at similar temperatures over northern oceans. One likely reason is that this region has few continental and anthropogenic sources of cloud-nucleating particles that can form droplets and ice. In this work, we present an overview of aerosol particle types over the Southern Ocean, including new measurements made below, in and above clouds in this region. These measurements and others indicate that biogenic sulfur-based particles >0.1 μm diameter contribute the majority of cloud condensation nuclei number concentrations in summer. Ice nucleating particles tend to have more organic components, likely from sea-spray. Both types of cloud nucleating particles may increase in a warming climate likely to have less sea ice, more phytoplankton activity, and stronger winds over the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Taken together, clouds over the Southern Ocean may become more reflective and partially counter the region’s expected albedo decrease due to diminishing sea ice. However, detailed modeling studies are needed to test this hypothesis due to the complexity of ocean-cloud-climate feedbacks in the region.more » « less
-
Abstract Stratocumulus clouds over the Southern Ocean have fewer droplets and are more likely to exist in the predominately supercooled phase than clouds at similar temperatures over northern oceans. One likely reason is that this region has few continental and anthropogenic sources of cloud‐nucleating particles that can form droplets and ice. In this work, we present an overview of aerosol particle types over the Southern Ocean, including new measurements made below, in and above clouds in this region. These measurements and others indicate that biogenic sulfur‐based particles >0.1 μm diameter contribute the majority of cloud condensation nuclei number concentrations in summer. Ice nucleating particles tend to have more organic components, likely from sea‐spray. Both types of cloud nucleating particles may increase in a warming climate likely to have less sea ice, more phytoplankton activity, and stronger winds over the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Taken together, clouds over the Southern Ocean may become more reflective and partially counter the region's expected albedo decrease due to diminishing sea ice. However, detailed modeling studies are needed to test this hypothesis due to the complexity of ocean‐cloud‐climate feedbacks in the region.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Abstract Weather and climate models are challenged by uncertainties and biases in simulating Southern Ocean (SO) radiative fluxes that trace to a poor understanding of cloud, aerosol, precipitation and radiative processes, and their interactions. Projects between 2016 and 2018 used in-situ probes, radar, lidar and other instruments to make comprehensive measurements of thermodynamics, surface radiation, cloud, precipitation, aerosol, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nucleating particles over the SO cold waters, and in ubiquitous liquid and mixed-phase cloudsnucleating particles over the SO cold waters, and in ubiquitous liquid and mixed-phase clouds common to this pristine environment. Data including soundings were collected from the NSF/NCAR G-V aircraft flying north-south gradients south of Tasmania, at Macquarie Island, and on the RV Investigator and RSV Aurora Australis. Synergistically these data characterize boundary layer and free troposphere environmental properties, and represent the most comprehensive data of this type available south of the oceanic polar front, in the cold sector of SO cyclones, and across seasons. Results show a largely pristine environments with numerous small and few large aerosols above cloud, suggesting new particle formation and limited long-range transport from continents, high variability in CCN and cloud droplet concentrations, and ubiquitous supercooled water in thin, multi-layered clouds, often with small-scale generating cells near cloud top. These observations demonstrate how cloud properties depend on aerosols while highlighting the importance of confirmed low clouds were responsible for radiation biases. The combination of models and observations is examining how aerosols and meteorology couple to control SO water and energy budgets.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3115-2021
