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

Title: Significance of aerosol radiative effect in energy balance control on global precipitation change

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Science Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.780· OSTI ID:1424119
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Univ. of Tokyo, Kashiwa (Japan). Atmosphere and Ocean Research Inst.
  2. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Jet Propulsion Lab.; Univ. of Reading (United Kingdom). Dept. of Meteorology
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Historical changes of global precipitation in the 20th century simulated by a climate model are investigated. The results simulated with alternate configurations of cloud microphysics are analyzed in the context of energy balance controls on global precipitation, where the latent heat changes associated with the precipitation change is nearly balanced with changes to atmospheric radiative cooling. The atmospheric radiative cooling is dominated by its clear-sky component, which is found to correlate with changes to both column water vapor and aerosol optical depth (AOD). The water vapor-dependent component of the clear-sky radiative cooling is then found to scale with global temperature change through the Clausius–Clapeyron relationship. This component results in a tendency of global precipitation increase with increasing temperature at a rate of approximately 2%K-1. Another component of the clear-sky radiative cooling, which is well correlated with changes to AOD, is also found to vary in magnitude among different scenarios with alternate configurations of cloud microphysics that controls the precipitation efficiency, a major factor influencing the aerosol scavenging process that can lead to different aerosol loadings. These results propose how different characteristics of cloud microphysics can cause different aerosol loadings that in turn perturb global energy balance to significantly change global precipitation. This implies a possible coupling of aerosol–cloud interaction with aerosol–radiation interaction in the context of global energy balance.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States); Univ. of Tokyo, Kashiwa (Japan)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (United States); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; NA15OAR4310153
OSTI ID:
1424119
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-726347
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Science Letters, Vol. 18, Issue 10; ISSN 1530-261X
Publisher:
Royal Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 11 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (16)

Controls of Global-Mean Precipitation Increases in Global Warming GCM Experiments journal December 2008
Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle journal September 2002
The Atmospheric Energy Constraint on Global-Mean Precipitation Change journal January 2014
Understanding the Intermodel Spread in Global-Mean Hydrological Sensitivity journal January 2016
Global-mean precipitation and black carbon in AR4 simulations: BLACK CARBON AND PRECIPITATION IN A1B journal January 2012
Fast and slow precipitation responses to individual climate forcers: A PDRMIP multimodel study journal March 2016
Cloud tuning in a coupled climate model: Impact on 20th century warming: CLOUD TUNING AND 20TH CENTURY WARMING journal March 2013
An observational radiative constraint on hydrologic cycle intensification journal December 2015
Evaluating cloud tuning in a climate model with satellite observations: EVALUATION OF CLOUD TUNING journal August 2013
Sensitivity of the Aerosol Indirect Effect to Subgrid Variability in the Cloud Parameterization of the GFDL Atmosphere General Circulation Model AM3 journal July 2011
Are climate-related changes to the character of global-mean precipitation predictable? journal April 2010
Precipitation, radiative forcing and global temperature change: PRECIPITATION AND RADIATIVE FORCING journal July 2010
Global warming without global mean precipitation increase? journal June 2016
Missing iris effect as a possible cause of muted hydrological change and high climate sensitivity in models journal April 2015
Two opposing effects of absorbing aerosols on global-mean precipitation: EFFECTS OF ABSORBING AEROSOLS ON PRECIPITATION journal July 2010
The Dynamical Core, Physical Parameterizations, and Basic Simulation Characteristics of the Atmospheric Component AM3 of the GFDL Global Coupled Model CM3 journal July 2011

Cited By (3)

The Impact of Process‐Based Warm Rain Constraints on the Aerosol Indirect Effect journal October 2018
Perturbations to Global Energy Budget Due to Absorbing and Scattering Aerosols journal February 2019
Low clouds link equilibrium climate sensitivity to hydrological sensitivity journal September 2018

Similar Records

Distortions of the Rain Distribution With Warming, With and Without Self-Aggregation
Journal Article · Thu Dec 10 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems · OSTI ID:1424119
Radiative forcing in the ACCMIP historical and future climate simulations
Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) · OSTI ID:1424119
+28 more
Overview of the Cumulus Humilis Aerosol Processing Study.
Journal Article · Sun Nov 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc. · OSTI ID:1424119
+12 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
global energy balance
aerosol radiative effect
cloud microphysics
hydrologic sensitivity