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Constraining Cloud Lifetime Effects of Aerosols using A-Train Satellite Observations
Wang, M. Ghan, S. Liu, Xiaohong L'Ecuyer, T. S. Zhang, K. Morrison, H. Ovchinnikov, M. Easter, R. Marchand, R. Chand, D.
Wang, M.
Ghan, S.
Liu, Xiaohong
L'Ecuyer, T. S.
Zhang, K.
Morrison, H.
Ovchinnikov, M.
Easter, R.
Marchand, R.
Chand, D.
Abstract
Description
Aerosol indirect effects have remained the largest uncertainty in estimates of the radiative forcing of past and future climate change. Observational constraints on cloud lifetime effects are particularly challenging since it is difficult to separate aerosol effects from meteorological influences. Here we use three global climate models, including a multi-scale aerosol-climate model PNNL-MMF, to show that the dependence of the probability of precipitation on aerosol loading, termed the precipitation frequency susceptibility (Spop), is a good measure of the liquid water path response to aerosol perturbation (λ), as both Spop and λ strongly depend on the magnitude of autoconversion, a model representation of precipitation formation via collisions among cloud droplets. This provides a method to use satellite observations to constrain cloud lifetime effects in global climate models. Spop in marine clouds estimated from CloudSat, MODIS and AMSR-E observations is substantially lower than that from global climate models and suggests a liquid water path increase of less than 5% from doubled cloud condensation nuclei concentrations. This implies a substantially smaller impact on shortwave cloud radiative forcing over ocean due to aerosol indirect effects than simulated by current global climate models (a reduction by one-third for one of the conventional aerosol-climate models). Further work is needed to quantify the uncertainties in satellite-derived estimates of Spop and to examine Spop in high-resolution models.
Date
2012-08-15
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Publisher
University of Wyoming. Libraries
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Keywords
A-train,Aerosol effect,Aerosol indirect effect,Aerosol loading,Autoconversion,Cloud condensation nuclei,Cloud droplets,Cloud radiative forcing,CloudSat,Future climate,Global climate model,High-resolution models,Liquid water paths,Meteorological influence,Model representation,Multiscales,Precipitation formation,Precipitation frequency,Radiative forcings,Satellite observations,Atmospheric aerosols,Atmospheric radiation,Climate change,Climate models,Loading,Satellite imagery,Uncertainty analysis,Precipitation (meteorology),aerosol property,AMSR-E,climate change,climate modeling,cloud condensation nucleus,cloud droplet,global climate,meteorology,MODIS,observational method,radiative forcing,resolution,satellite imagery,shortwave radiation,uncertainty analysis,Engineering