Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5

Liu, Xiaohong; Shi, Xiangjun; Zhang, Kai; Jensen, Eric; Gettelman, A.; Barahona, Donifan; Nenes, Athanasios; Lawson, Paul

doi:10.5194/acp-12-12061-2012

Title: Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5

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Abstract

In this study the effect of dust aerosol on upper tropospheric cirrus clouds through heterogeneous ice nucleation is investigated in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) with two ice nucleation parameterizations. Both parameterizations consider homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation and the competition between the two mechanisms in cirrus clouds, but differ significantly in the number concentration of heterogeneous ice nuclei (IN) from dust. Heterogeneous nucleation on dust aerosol reduces the occurrence frequency of homogeneous nucleation and thus the ice crystal number concentration in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) cirrus clouds compared to simulations with pure homogeneous nucleation. Global and annual mean shortwave and longwave cloud forcing are reduced by up to 2.0 ± 0.1 W m-2 (1σ uncertainty) and 2.4 ± 0.1 W m-2, respectively due to the presence of dust IN, with the net cloud forcing change of -0.40 ± 0.20 W m-2. Comparison of model simulations with in situ aircraft data obtained in NH mid-latitudes suggests that homogeneous ice nucleation may play an important role in the ice nucleation at these regions with temperatures of 205–230 K. However, simulations overestimate observed ice crystal number concentrations in the tropical tropopause regions with temperatures of 190–205 K, and overestimate the frequencymore »« less

Authors:

Liu, Xiaohong ^[1]; Shi, Xiangjun ^[2]; Zhang, Kai ^[1]; Jensen, Eric ^[3]; Gettelman, A. ^[4]; Barahona, Donifan ^[5]; Nenes, Athanasios ^[6]; Lawson, Paul ^[7]

Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
NASA Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Mountain View, CA (United States)
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States); I.M. Systems Group, Rockville, MD (United States)
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
SPEC Inc., Boulder, CO (United States)

Publication Date:: Wed Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2012

Research Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 1059192

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-86722
Journal ID: ISSN 1680-7316; KP1701000; KP1703010

DOE Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 12; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 1680-7316

Publisher:: European Geosciences Union

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; SENSITIVITY; DUSTS; ICE; NUCLEI; Sensitivity; Studies; Dust; Ice; Nuclei; Cirrus Clouds; Community

Citation Formats


                    Liu, Xiaohong, Shi, Xiangjun, Zhang, Kai, Jensen, Eric, Gettelman, A., Barahona, Donifan, Nenes, Athanasios, and Lawson, Paul. Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5.  United States: N. p., 2012. 
        Web.  doi:10.5194/acp-12-12061-2012.

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                    Liu, Xiaohong, Shi, Xiangjun, Zhang, Kai, Jensen, Eric, Gettelman, A., Barahona, Donifan, Nenes, Athanasios, & Lawson, Paul. Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-12061-2012

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                    Liu, Xiaohong, Shi, Xiangjun, Zhang, Kai, Jensen, Eric, Gettelman, A., Barahona, Donifan, Nenes, Athanasios, and Lawson, Paul. 2012.  
        "Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-12061-2012.

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@article{osti_1059192,

  title        = {Sensitivity Studies of Dust Ice Nuclei Effect on Cirrus Clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5},

  author       = {Liu, Xiaohong and Shi, Xiangjun and Zhang, Kai and Jensen, Eric and Gettelman, A. and Barahona, Donifan and Nenes, Athanasios and Lawson, Paul},

  abstractNote = {In this study the effect of dust aerosol on upper tropospheric cirrus clouds through heterogeneous ice nucleation is investigated in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 (CAM5) with two ice nucleation parameterizations. Both parameterizations consider homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation and the competition between the two mechanisms in cirrus clouds, but differ significantly in the number concentration of heterogeneous ice nuclei (IN) from dust. Heterogeneous nucleation on dust aerosol reduces the occurrence frequency of homogeneous nucleation and thus the ice crystal number concentration in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) cirrus clouds compared to simulations with pure homogeneous nucleation. Global and annual mean shortwave and longwave cloud forcing are reduced by up to 2.0 ± 0.1 W m-2 (1σ uncertainty) and 2.4 ± 0.1 W m-2, respectively due to the presence of dust IN, with the net cloud forcing change of -0.40 ± 0.20 W m-2. Comparison of model simulations with in situ aircraft data obtained in NH mid-latitudes suggests that homogeneous ice nucleation may play an important role in the ice nucleation at these regions with temperatures of 205–230 K. However, simulations overestimate observed ice crystal number concentrations in the tropical tropopause regions with temperatures of 190–205 K, and overestimate the frequency of occurrence of high ice crystal number concentration (> 200 L-1) and underestimate the frequency of low ice crystal number concentration (< 30 L-1) at NH mid-latitudes. These results highlight the importance of quantifying the number concentrations and properties of heterogeneous IN (including dust aerosol) in the upper troposphere from the global perspective.},

  doi          = {10.5194/acp-12-12061-2012},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1059192},
  journal      = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics},

  issn         = {1680-7316},

  number       = 24,

  volume       = 12,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2012},

  month        = {Wed Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2012}

}

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