skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Using Long-term Satellite Observations to Identify Sensitive Regimes and Active Regions of Aerosol Indirect Effects for Liquid Clouds over Global Oceans

Journal Article · · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027187· OSTI ID:1413961
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. NOAA/NESDIS, Silver Spring, NC (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  3. State Univ. of New York at Albany, Albany, NY (United States)
  4. NOAA/NESDIS, Madison, WI (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Long-term (1981-2011) satellite climate data records (CDRs) of clouds and aerosols are used to investigate the aerosol-cloud interaction of marine water cloud from a climatology perspective. Our focus is on identifying the regimes and regions where the aerosol indirect effect (AIE) are evident in long-term averages over the global oceans through analyzing the correlation features between aerosol loading and the key cloud variables including cloud droplet effective radius (CDER), cloud optical depth (COD), cloud water path (CWP), cloud top height (CTH), and cloud top temperature (CTT). An aerosol optical thickness (AOT) range of 0.13 < AOT < 0.3 is identified as the sensitive regime of the conventional first AIE where CDER is more susceptible to AOT than the other cloud variables. The first AIE that manifests as the change of long-term averaged CDER appears only in limited oceanic regions. The signature of aerosol invigoration of water clouds as revealed by the increase of cloud cover fraction (CCF) and CTH with increasing AOT at the middle/high latitudes of both hemispheres is identified for a pristine atmosphere (AOT < 0.08). Aerosol invigoration signature is also revealed by the concurrent increase of CDER, COD, and CWP with increasing AOT for a polluted marine atmosphere (AOT > 0.3) in the tropical convergence zones. The regions where the second AIE is likely to manifest in the CCF change are limited to several oceanic areas with high CCF of the warm water clouds near the western coasts of continents. The second AIE signature as represented by the reduction of the precipitation efficiency with increasing AOT is more likely to be observed in the AOT regime of 0.08 < AOT < 0.4. The corresponding AIE active regions manifested themselves as the decline of the precipitation efficiency are mainly limited to the oceanic areas downwind of continental aerosols. Furthermore, the sensitive regime of the conventional AIE identified in this observational study is likely associated with the transitional regime from the aerosol-limited regime to the updraft-limited regime identified for aerosol-cloud interaction in cloud model simulations.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1413961
Report Number(s):
BNL-114822-2017-JA; R&D Project: 2019‐BNL-EE630EECA-Budg; KP1701000; TRN: US1800608
Journal Information:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 123, Issue 1; ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (44)

Predicting Simultaneous Nadir Overpasses among Polar-Orbiting Meteorological Satellites for the Intersatellite Calibration of Radiometers journal April 2004
Aerosol Retrievals from Individual AVHRR Channels. Part I: Retrieval Algorithm and Transition from Dave to 6S Radiative Transfer Model journal February 2002
Daytime Global Cloud Typing from AVHRR and VIIRS: Algorithm Description, Validation, and Comparisons journal June 2005
Reply to Comments on “Seasonal Variation of the Physical Properties of Marine Boundary Layer Clouds off the California Coast” journal June 2010
Review: Cloud invigoration by aerosols—Coupling between microphysics and dynamics journal April 2014
Measurements of the relationship between submicron aerosol number and volume concentration journal March 1998
A study of the direct and indirect effects of aerosols using global satellite data sets of aerosol and cloud parameters journal November 2003
Climate Forcing by Anthropogenic Aerosols journal January 1992
Indirect warming effect from dispersion forcing journal October 2002
Flood or Drought: How Do Aerosols Affect Precipitation? journal September 2008
The effect of smoke, dust, and pollution aerosol on shallow cloud development over the Atlantic Ocean journal August 2005
Aerosol Effect on Cloud Droplet Size Monitored from Satellite journal February 2002
Spectral dispersion of cloud droplet size distributions and the parameterization of cloud droplet effective radius journal July 2000
Untangling aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in a buffered system journal October 2009
Aerosols, Climate, and the Hydrological Cycle journal December 2001
The Pathfinder Atmospheres–Extended AVHRR Climate Dataset journal June 2014
An analytical expression for predicting the critical radius in the autoconversion parameterization: EXPRESSION FOR CRITICAL RADIUS journal March 2004
An assessment of the impact of pollution on global cloud albedo journal September 1984
Regional evaluation of an advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) two-channel aerosol retrieval algorithm journal January 2004
Aerosol and cloud property relationships for summertime stratiform clouds in the northeastern Atlantic from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer observations journal January 2005
Using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) to calibrate advanced very high resolution radiometer reflectance channels: USING MODIS TO CALIBRATE AVHRR REFLECTANCES journal December 2002
Implementation of the Daytime Cloud Optical and Microphysical Properties Algorithm (DCOMP) in PATMOS-x journal July 2012
Deriving an inter-sensor consistent calibration for the AVHRR solar reflectance data record journal December 2010
Aerosols, Cloud Microphysics, and Fractional Cloudiness journal September 1989
New understanding and quantification of the regime dependence of aerosol-cloud interaction for studying aerosol indirect effects: Aerosol-Cloud Interaction Regimes journal February 2016
Development, validation, and potential enhancements to the second-generation operational aerosol product at the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration journal July 1997
Pollution and clouds journal February 2001
Why is the satellite observed aerosol's indirect effect so variable? journal January 2005
Smoke Invigoration Versus Inhibition of Clouds over the Amazon journal August 2008
Comments on “Seasonal Variation of the Physical Properties of Marine Boundary Layer Clouds off the California Coast” journal June 2010
Generalized threshold function accounting for effect of relative dispersion on threshold behavior of autoconversion process journal January 2006
From aerosol-limited to invigoration of warm convective clouds journal June 2014
Retrieving microphysical properties near the tops of potential rain clouds by multispectral analysis of AVHRR data journal June 1994
Effect of Ship-Stack Effluents on Cloud Reflectivity journal August 1987
The Influence of Cloud Nucleus Population on the Microstructure and Stability of Convective Clouds journal January 1959
Theoretical basis for convective invigoration due to increased aerosol concentration journal January 2011
Aerosol- and updraft-limited regimes of cloud droplet formation: influence of particle number, size and hygroscopicity on the activation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) journal January 2009
Increase of cloud droplet size with aerosol optical depth: An observation and modeling study journal January 2008
Seasonal Variation of the Physical Properties of Marine Boundary Layer Clouds off the California Coast journal May 2009
Satellite–Based Insights into Precipitation Formation Processes in Continental and Maritime Convective Clouds journal November 1998
Assessing the consistency of AVHRR and MODIS L1B reflectance for generating Fundamental Climate Data Records journal January 2008
Pollution and the planetary albedo journal December 1974
An observational study of the relationship between cloud, aerosol and meteorology in broken low-level cloud conditions journal January 2008
Climatology Analysis of Aerosol Effect on Marine Water Cloud from Long-Term Satellite Climate Data Records journal April 2016

Similar Records

Climatology Perspective of Sensitive Regimes and Active Regions of Aerosol Indirect Effect for Cirrus Clouds over the Global Oceans
Journal Article · Tue Mar 03 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Remote Sensing · OSTI ID:1413961
+2 more
Improving Bulk Microphysics Parameterizations in Simulations of Aerosol Effects
Journal Article · Wed Jun 05 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Journal of Geophysical Research. D. (Atmospheres), 118(11):5361-5379 · OSTI ID:1413961
+2 more
Microphysical Effects Determine Macrophysical Response for Aerosol Impacts on Deep Convective Clouds
Journal Article · Tue Nov 26 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(48):E4581-E4590 · OSTI ID:1413961
+4 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Aerosol Indirect Effect
Climate Data Record
Satellite
AVHRR