Weekly variability of precipitation induced by anthropogenic aerosols: A case study in Korea in summer 2004.

Journal Article · Tue Jan 05 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Science of the Total Environment

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.10.020· OSTI ID:1236908

Bae, Soo Ya; Jeong, Jaein I.; Park, R.; Lim, Kyo-Sun; Hong, Song-You

We examine the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the weekly variability of precipitation in Korea in summer 2004 by using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) models. We con-duct two WRF simulations including a baseline simulation with empirically based cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentrations and a sensitivity simulation with our implementation to account for the effect of aerosols on CCN number concentrations. The first simulation underestimates observed precipitation amounts, particularly in northeastern coastal areas of Korea, whereas the latter shows higher precipitation amounts that are in better agree-ment with the observations. In addition, the sensitivity model with the aerosol effects reproduces the observed weekly variability, particularly for precipitation frequency with a high R at 0.85, showing 20% increase of precipita-tion events during the weekend than those during weekdays. We find that the aerosol effect results in higher CCN number concentrations during the weekdays and a three-fold increase of the cloud water mixing ratio through en-hanced condensation. As a result, the amount of warm rain is generally suppressed because of the low auto-conversion process from cloud water to rain water under high aerosol conditions. The inefficient conversion, how-ever, leads to higher vertical development of clouds in the mid-atmosphere with stronger updrafts in the sensitivity model, which increases by 21% cold-phase hydrometeors including ice, snow, and graupel relative to the baseline model and ultimately results in higher precipitation amounts in summer.

• Research Organization: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-76RL01830
• OSTI ID: 1236908
• Report Number(s): PNNL-SA-115291
• Journal Information: Science of the Total Environment, Journal Name: Science of the Total Environment Vol. 541; ISSN 0048-9697
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English