Modelling the chemically aged and mixed aerosols over the eastern central Atlantic Ocean – potential impacts

Detailed information on the chemical and physical properties of aerosols is important for assessing their role in air quality and climate. This work explores the origin and fate of continental aerosols transported over the Central Atlantic Ocean, in terms of chemical composition, number and size distribution, using chemistry-transport models, satellite data and in situ measurements. We focus on August 2005, a period with intense hurricane and tropical storm activity over the Atlantic Ocean. A mixture of anthropogenic (sulphates, nitrates), natural (desert dust, sea salt) and chemically aged (sulphate and nitrate on dust) aerosols is found entering the hurricane genesis region, most likely interacting with clouds in the area. Results from our modelling study suggest rather small amounts of accumulation mode desert dust, sea salt and chemically aged dust aerosols in this Atlantic Ocean region. Aerosols of smaller size (Aitken mode) are more abundant in the area and in some occasions sulphates of anthropogenic origin and desert dust are of the same magnitude in terms of number concentrations. Typical aerosol number concentrations are derived for the vertical layers near shallow cloud formation regimes, indicating that the aerosol number concentration can reach several thousand particles per cubic centimetre. The vertical distribution of the aerosols shows that the desert dust particles are often transported near the top of the marine cloud layer as they enter into the region where deep convection is initiated. The anthropogenic sulphate aerosol can be transported within a thick layer and enter the cloud deck through multiple ways (from the top, the base of the cloud, and by entrainment). The sodium (sea salt related) aerosol is mostly found below the cloud base. The results of this work may provide insights relevant for studies that consider aerosol influences on cloud processes and storm development in the Central Atlantic region

Thin liquid water clouds: their importance and our challenge

Many clouds important to the Earth’s energy balance contain small amounts of liquid water, yet despite many improvements, large differences in retrievals of their liquid water amount and particle size still must be resolved

Optically Thin Liquid Water Clouds: Their Importance and Our Challenge

Many of the clouds important to the Earth's energy balance, from the tropics to the Arctic, are optically thin and contain liquid water. Longwave and shortwave radiative fluxes are very sensitive to small perturbations of the cloud liquid water path (LWP) when the liquid water path is small (i.e., < g/sq m) and, thus, the radiative properties of these clouds must be well understood to capture them correctly in climate models. We review the importance of these thin clouds to the Earth's energy balance, and explain the difficulties in observing them. In particular, because these clouds are optically thin, potentially mixed-phase, and often (i.e., have large 3-D variability), it is challenging to retrieve their microphysical properties accurately. We describe a retrieval algorithm intercomparison that was conducted to evaluate the issues involved. The intercomparison included eighteen different algorithms to evaluate their retrieved LWP, optical depth, and effective radii. Surprisingly, evaluation of the simplest case, a single-layer overcast cloud, revealed that huge discrepancies exist among the various techniques, even among different algorithms that are in the same general classification. This suggests that, despite considerable advances that have occurred in the field, much more work must be done, and we discuss potential avenues for future work

The Effect of Non-Lambertian Surface Reflectance on Aerosol Radiative Forcing

Surface reflectance is an important factor in determining the strength of aerosol radiative forcing. Previous studies of radiative forcing assumed that the reflected surface radiance is isotropic and does not depend on incident illumination angle. This Lambertian reflection model is not a very good descriptor of reflectance from real land and ocean surfaces. In this study we present computational results for the seasonal average of short and long wave aerosol radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface. The effect of the Lambertian assumption is found through comparison with calculations using a more detailed bi-direction reflectance distribution function (BRDF)

Incorporation of 3D Shortwave Radiative Effects within the Weather Research and Forecasting Model

A principal goal of the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is to understand the 3D cloud-radiation problem from scales ranging from the local to the size of global climate model (GCM) grid squares. For climate models using typical cloud overlap schemes, 3D radiative effects are minimal for all but the most complicated cloud fields. However, with the introduction of ''superparameterization'' methods, where sub-grid cloud processes are accounted for by embedding high resolution 2D cloud system resolving models within a GCM grid cell, the impact of 3D radiative effects on the local scale becomes increasingly relevant (Randall et al. 2003). In a recent study, we examined this issue by comparing the heating rates produced from a 3D and 1D shortwave radiative transfer model for a variety of radar derived cloud fields (O'Hirok and Gautier 2005). As demonstrated in Figure 1, the heating rate differences for a large convective field can be significant where 3D effects produce areas o f intense local heating. This finding, however, does not address the more important question of whether 3D radiative effects can alter the dynamics and structure of a cloud field. To investigate that issue we have incorporated a 3D radiative transfer algorithm into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Here, we present very preliminary findings of a comparison between cloud fields generated from a high resolution non-hydrostatic mesoscale numerical weather model using 1D and 3D radiative transfer codes

Microphysical Properties of Clouds with Low Liquid Water Paths: An Update from Clouds with Low Optical (Water) Depth

Clouds play a critical role in the modulation of the radiative transfer in the atmosphere, and how clouds interact with radiation is one of the primary uncertainties in global climate models (GCMs). To reduce this uncertainty, the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program collects an immense amount of data from its Climate Research Facilities (CRFs); these data include observations of radiative fluxes, cloud properties from active and passive remote sensors, upper atmospheric soundings, and other observations. The program's goal is to use these coincident, longterm observations to improve the parameterization of radiative transfer in clear and cloudy atmospheres in GCMs