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Title: Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime

Abstract

There are many contributing factors which determine the micro- and macrophysical properties of clouds, including atmospheric vertical structure, dominant meteorological conditions, and aerosol concentration, all of which may be coupled to one another. In the quest to determine aerosol effects on clouds, these potential relationships must be understood. Here we describe several observed correlations between aerosol conditions and cloud and atmospheric properties in the Indian Ocean winter monsoon season.In the CARDEX (Cloud, Aerosol, Radiative forcing, Dynamics EXperiment) field campaign conducted in February and March 2012 in the northern Indian Ocean, continuous measurements were made of atmospheric precipitable water vapor (PWV) and the liquid water path (LWP) of trade cumulus clouds, concurrent with measurements of water vapor flux, cloud and aerosol vertical profiles, meteorological data, and surface and total-column aerosol from instrumentation at a ground observatory and on small unmanned aircraft. We present observations which indicate a positive correlation between aerosol and cloud LWP only when considering cases with low atmospheric water vapor (PWV < 40 kg m–2), a criterion which acts to filter the data to control for the natural meteorological variability in the region.We then use the aircraft and ground-based measurements to explore possible mechanisms behind this observed aerosol–LWPmore » correlation. The increase in cloud liquid water is found to coincide with a lowering of the cloud base, which is itself attributable to increased boundary layer humidity in polluted conditions. High pollution is found to correlate with both higher temperatures and higher humidity measured throughout the boundary layer. A large-scale analysis, using satellite observations and meteorological reanalysis, corroborates these covariations: high-pollution cases are shown to originate as a highly polluted boundary layer air mass approaching the observatory from a northwesterly direction. The source air mass exhibits both higher temperatures and higher humidity in the polluted cases. While the warmer temperatures may be attributable to aerosol absorption of solar radiation over the subcontinent, the factors responsible for the coincident high humidity are less evident: the high-aerosol conditions are observed to disperse with air mass evolution, along with a weakening of the high-temperature anomaly, while the high-humidity condition is observed to strengthen in magnitude as the polluted air mass moves over the ocean toward the site of the CARDEX observations. In conclusion, potential causal mechanisms of the observed correlations, including meteorological or aerosol-induced factors, are explored, though future research will be needed for a more complete and quantitative understanding of the aerosol–humidity relationship.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
  1. Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Scripps Institution of Oceanography; NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, (United States); Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, (United States)
  2. Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Scripps Institution of Oceanography; International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, Kathmandu (Nepal)
  3. Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Univ. of Birmingham, Birmingham (United Kingdom). School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
  4. Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Scripps Institution of Oceanography
  5. Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV (United States)
  6. Stockholm Univ., Stockholm, (Sweden). Dept. of Meteorology and Bolin Centre for Climate Research
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); Desert Research Institute; Stockholm University; Argonne National Laboratory Max Planck Institute for Chemistry; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
OSTI Identifier:
1268080
Grant/Contract Number:  
ATM07-21142
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 16; Journal Issue: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 1680-7324
Publisher:
European Geosciences Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; unmanned aerial vehicles; solar absorption; black carbon; microphysics; albedo; system; asia

Citation Formats

Pistone, Kristina, Praveen, Puppala S., Thomas, Rick M., Ramanathan, Veerabhadran, Wilcox, Eric M., and Bender, Frida A.-M. Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.5194/acp-16-5203-2016.
Pistone, Kristina, Praveen, Puppala S., Thomas, Rick M., Ramanathan, Veerabhadran, Wilcox, Eric M., & Bender, Frida A.-M. Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5203-2016
Pistone, Kristina, Praveen, Puppala S., Thomas, Rick M., Ramanathan, Veerabhadran, Wilcox, Eric M., and Bender, Frida A.-M. 2016. "Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5203-2016. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1268080.
@article{osti_1268080,
title = {Observed correlations between aerosol and cloud properties in an Indian Ocean trade cumulus regime},
author = {Pistone, Kristina and Praveen, Puppala S. and Thomas, Rick M. and Ramanathan, Veerabhadran and Wilcox, Eric M. and Bender, Frida A.-M.},
abstractNote = {There are many contributing factors which determine the micro- and macrophysical properties of clouds, including atmospheric vertical structure, dominant meteorological conditions, and aerosol concentration, all of which may be coupled to one another. In the quest to determine aerosol effects on clouds, these potential relationships must be understood. Here we describe several observed correlations between aerosol conditions and cloud and atmospheric properties in the Indian Ocean winter monsoon season.In the CARDEX (Cloud, Aerosol, Radiative forcing, Dynamics EXperiment) field campaign conducted in February and March 2012 in the northern Indian Ocean, continuous measurements were made of atmospheric precipitable water vapor (PWV) and the liquid water path (LWP) of trade cumulus clouds, concurrent with measurements of water vapor flux, cloud and aerosol vertical profiles, meteorological data, and surface and total-column aerosol from instrumentation at a ground observatory and on small unmanned aircraft. We present observations which indicate a positive correlation between aerosol and cloud LWP only when considering cases with low atmospheric water vapor (PWV < 40 kg m–2), a criterion which acts to filter the data to control for the natural meteorological variability in the region.We then use the aircraft and ground-based measurements to explore possible mechanisms behind this observed aerosol–LWP correlation. The increase in cloud liquid water is found to coincide with a lowering of the cloud base, which is itself attributable to increased boundary layer humidity in polluted conditions. High pollution is found to correlate with both higher temperatures and higher humidity measured throughout the boundary layer. A large-scale analysis, using satellite observations and meteorological reanalysis, corroborates these covariations: high-pollution cases are shown to originate as a highly polluted boundary layer air mass approaching the observatory from a northwesterly direction. The source air mass exhibits both higher temperatures and higher humidity in the polluted cases. While the warmer temperatures may be attributable to aerosol absorption of solar radiation over the subcontinent, the factors responsible for the coincident high humidity are less evident: the high-aerosol conditions are observed to disperse with air mass evolution, along with a weakening of the high-temperature anomaly, while the high-humidity condition is observed to strengthen in magnitude as the polluted air mass moves over the ocean toward the site of the CARDEX observations. In conclusion, potential causal mechanisms of the observed correlations, including meteorological or aerosol-induced factors, are explored, though future research will be needed for a more complete and quantitative understanding of the aerosol–humidity relationship.},
doi = {10.5194/acp-16-5203-2016},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1268080}, journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)},
issn = {1680-7324},
number = 8,
volume = 16,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Apr 27 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Wed Apr 27 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

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Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer
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The diurnal cycle of the smoky marine boundary layer observed during August in the remote southeast Atlantic
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