Vaughan Phillips
Universitetslektor
Effects of solid aerosols on partially glaciated clouds
Författare
Summary, in English
Sensitivity tests were conducted using a state-of-the-art aerosol–cloud to investigate the key microphysical and dynamical mechanisms by which solid aerosols affect glaciated clouds. The tests involved simulations of two contrasting cases of deep convection—a tropical maritime case and a midlatitude continental case, in which solid aerosol concentrations were increased from their pre-industrial (1850) to their present-day (2010) levels. In the midlatitude continental case, the boosting of the number concentrations of solid aerosols weakened the updrafts in deep convective clouds, resulting in reduced snow and graupel production. Consequently, the cloud fraction and the cloud optical thickness increased with increasing ice nuclei (IN), causing a negative radiative flux change at the top of the atmosphere (TOA), that is, a cooling effect of −1.96 ± 0.29 W/m2. On the other hand, in the tropical maritime case, increased ice nuclei invigorated upper-tropospheric updrafts in both deep convective and stratiform clouds, causing cloud tops to shift upwards. Snow production was also intensified, resulting in reduced cloud fraction and cloud optical thickness, hence a positive radiative flux change at the TOA—a warming effect of 1.02 ± 0.36 W/m2 was predicted.
Avdelning/ar
- Institutionen för naturgeografi och ekosystemvetenskap
- MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system
Publiceringsår
2018
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
2634-2649
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Volym
144
Issue
717
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Royal Meteorological Society
Ämne
- Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Nyckelord
- aerosol–cloud interactions
- cloud microphysics
- cloud-resolving models
- clouds
- glaciated clouds
- indirect effects
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0035-9009