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

Title: Effective radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols in E3SM version 1: historical changes, causality, decomposition, and parameterization sensitivities

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)
ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ; ; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ; ; ; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo more »; ; ; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo; ORCiD logo « less

Abstract. an important measure of the anthropogenic aerosol effects simulated by a global climate model. Here we analyze ERFaer simulated by the E3SM version 1 (E3SMv1) atmospheric model using both century-long free-running atmosphere–land simulations and short nudged simulations. We relate the simulated ERFaer to characteristics of the aerosol composition and optical properties, and we evaluate the relationships between key aerosol and cloud properties. In terms of historical changes from the year 1870 to 2014, our results show that the global mean anthropogenic aerosol burden and optical depth increase during the simulation period as expected, but the regional averages show large differences in the temporal evolution. The largest regional differences are found in the emission-induced evolution of the burden and optical depth of the sulfate aerosol: a strong decreasing trend is seen in the Northern Hemisphere high-latitude region after around 1970, while a continued increase is simulated in the tropics. The relationships between key aerosol and cloud properties (relative changes between pre-industrial and present-day conditions) also show evident changes after 1970, diverging from the linear relationships exhibited for the period of 1870–1969. In addition to the regional differences in the simulated relationships, a reduced sensitivity in cloud droplet number and other cloud properties to aerosol perturbations is seen when the aerosol perturbation is large. Consequently, the global annual mean ERFaer magnitude does not increase after around 1970. The ERFaer in E3SMv1 is relatively large compared to the recently published multi-model estimates; the primary reason is the large indirect aerosol effect (i.e., through aerosol–cloud interactions). Compared to other models, E3SMv1 features large relative changes in the cloud droplet effective radius in response to aerosol perturbations. Large sensitivity is also seen in the liquid cloud optical depth, which is determined by changes in both the effective radius and liquid water path. Aerosol-induced changes in liquid and ice cloud properties in E3SMv1 are found to have a strong correlation, as the evolution of anthropogenic sulfate aerosols affects both the liquid cloud formation and the homogeneous ice nucleation in cirrus clouds (that causes a large effect on longwave ERFaer). As suggested by a previous study, the large ERFaer appears to be one of the reasons why the model cannot reproduce the observed global mean temperature evolution in the second half of the 20th century. Sensitivity simulations are performed to understand which parameterization and/or parameter changes have a large impact on the simulated ERFaer. The ERFaer estimates in E3SMv1 for the shortwave and longwave components are sensitive to the parameterization changes in both liquid and ice cloud processes. When the parameterization of ice cloud processes is modified, the top-of-model forcing changes in the shortwave and longwave components largely offset each other, so the net effect is negligible. This suggests that, to reduce the magnitude of the net ERFaer, it would be more effective to reduce the anthropogenic aerosol effect through liquid or mixed-phase clouds.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
65814; AC52-07NA27344; AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1876130
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1886146; OSTI ID: 1886864
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-829670; PNNL-SA-169371
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Journal Name: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online) Vol. 22 Journal Issue: 13; ISSN 1680-7324
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbHCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
Germany
Language:
English

References (81)

A Numerical Simulation of Wintertime, Orographic Precipitation: Part I. Description of Model Microphysics and Numerical Techniques journal October 1974
Toward a Minimal Representation of Aerosols in Climate Models: Comparative Decomposition of Aerosol Direct, Semidirect, and Indirect Radiative Forcing journal October 2012
The sulfate-CCN-cloud albedo effect. journal July 1995
Multi-spectral calculations of the direct radiative forcing of tropospheric sulphate and soot aerosols using a column model journal October 1997
Effects of pre-existing ice crystals on cirrus clouds and comparison between different ice nucleation parameterizations with the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) journal January 2015
Anthropogenic aerosol forcing – insights from multiple estimates from aerosol-climate models with reduced complexity journal January 2019
Global modeling of aerosol dynamics: Model description, evaluation, and interactions between sulfate and nonsulfate aerosols journal January 2005
Large contribution of natural aerosols to uncertainty in indirect forcing journal November 2013
Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization journal January 2016
High Climate Sensitivity in the Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2) journal July 2019
Toward a minimal representation of aerosols in climate models: description and evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 journal January 2012
Bounding global aerosol radiative forcing of climate change journal November 2019
A PDF-Based Model for Boundary Layer Clouds. Part I: Method and Model Description journal December 2002
Historical (1750–2014) anthropogenic emissions of reactive gases and aerosols from the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) journal January 2018
Understanding Cloud and Convective Characteristics in Version 1 of the E3SM Atmosphere Model journal October 2018
Can nudging be used to quantify model sensitivities in precipitation and cloud forcing?: NUDGING AND MODEL SENSITIVITIES journal July 2016
Radiative forcing of the direct aerosol effect from AeroCom Phase II simulations journal January 2013
Impact of numerical choices on water conservation in the E3SM Atmosphere Model version 1 (EAMv1) journal January 2018
On the characteristics of aerosol indirect effect based on dynamic regimes in global climate models journal January 2016
Light Absorption by Carbonaceous Particles: An Investigative Review journal January 2006
CAM-SE: A scalable spectral element dynamical core for the Community Atmosphere Model journal November 2011
Aerosols in the E3SM Version 1: New Developments and Their Impacts on Radiative Forcing journal January 2020
The generation of gridded emissions data for CMIP6 journal January 2020
Challenges in constraining anthropogenic aerosol effects on cloud radiative forcing using present-day spatiotemporal variability journal February 2016
Sensitivity of climate simulations to the parameterization of cumulus convection in the Canadian climate centre general circulation model journal September 1995
Evaluating and constraining ice cloud parameterizations in CAM5 using aircraft measurements from the SPARTICUS campaign journal January 2013
Adjustments in the Forcing-Feedback Framework for Understanding Climate Change journal February 2015
Global Dust Cycle and Direct Radiative Effect in E3SM Version 1: Impact of Increasing Model Resolution preprint March 2022
Global simulations of ice nucleation and ice supersaturation with an improved cloud scheme in the Community Atmosphere Model journal January 2010
Influence of dimethyl sulfide on the carbon cycle and biological production journal February 2018
Constraining cloud droplet number concentration in GCMs suppresses the aerosol indirect effect journal January 2009
Small-Scale and Mesoscale Variability in Cloudy Boundary Layers: Joint Probability Density Functions journal December 2002
Quantifying and attributing time step sensitivities in present-day climate simulations conducted with EAMv1 journal January 2021
Sensitivity studies of dust ice nuclei effect on cirrus clouds with the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5 journal January 2012
Radiative forcing by aerosols as derived from the AeroCom present-day and pre-industrial simulations journal January 2006
Historical (1850–2000) gridded anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions of reactive gases and aerosols: methodology and application journal January 2010
A New Cloud Physics Parameterization in a Large-Eddy Simulation Model of Marine Stratocumulus journal January 2000
A compatible and conservative spectral element method on unstructured grids journal August 2010
The DOE E3SM Model Version 2: Overview of the physical model preprint April 2022
Analysis and quantification of the diversities of aerosol life cycles within AeroCom journal January 2006
The Measurement and Parameterization of Effective Radius of Droplets in Warm Stratocumulus Clouds journal July 1994
Comparison of Anthropogenic Aerosol Climate Effects among Three Climate Models with Reduced Complexity journal August 2019
Evaluation of Clouds in Version 1 of the E3SM Atmosphere Model With Satellite Simulators journal May 2019
Increased Arctic cloud longwave emissivity associated with pollution from mid-latitudes journal April 2006
The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Overview and Evaluation at Standard Resolution journal July 2019
Ice nucleation parameterization for global models [Ice nucleation parameterization for global models] journal September 2005
Description and evaluation of a new four-mode version of the Modal Aerosol Module (MAM4) within version 5.3 of the Community Atmosphere Model journal January 2016
Significant dust simulation differences in nudged and climatological operation mode of the AGCM ECHAM: GLOBAL DUST SIMULATIONS journal July 2004
Surprising similarities in model and observational aerosol radiative forcing estimates journal January 2020
Rethinking the Lower Bound on Aerosol Radiative Forcing journal June 2015
Sensitivity Study on the Influence of Cloud Microphysical Parameters on Mixed-Phase Cloud Thermodynamic Phase Partitioning in CAM5 journal February 2016
Radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases: Calculations with the AER radiative transfer models journal January 2008
Global fire emissions estimates during 1997–2016 journal January 2017
An Overview of the Atmospheric Component of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model journal August 2019
CondiDiag1.0: a flexible online diagnostic tool for conditional sampling and budget analysis in the E3SM atmosphere model (EAM) journal January 2022
Aerosol indirect effects – general circulation model intercomparison and evaluation with satellite data journal January 2009
The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Description and Results at High Resolution journal December 2019
Impact of Nudging Strategy on the Climate Representativeness and Hindcast Skill of Constrained EAMv1 Simulations journal December 2019
Different contact angle distributions for heterogeneous ice nucleation in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5 journal January 2014
Development and Evaluation of Chemistry‐Aerosol‐Climate Model CAM5‐Chem‐MAM7‐MOSAIC: Global Atmospheric Distribution and Radiative Effects of Nitrate Aerosol journal April 2021
CCN measurements during ACE-2 and their relationship to cloud microphysical properties journal April 2000
Advanced Two-Moment Bulk Microphysics for Global Models. Part I: Off-Line Tests and Comparison with Other Schemes journal February 2015
Parameterization of optical properties for hydrated internally mixed aerosol: PARAMETERIZATION OF OPTICAL PROPERTIES FOR HYDRATED AEROSOL journal May 2007
A climatologically significant aerosol longwave indirect effect in the Arctic journal January 2006
Biomass burning aerosol impact on surface winds during the 2010 Russian heat wave journal January 2017
Global transformation and fate of SOA: Implications of low-volatility SOA and gas-phase fragmentation reactions: Global Modeling of SOA journal May 2015
Clouds and Aerosols book June 2014
Radiative Forcing of Nitrate Aerosols From 1975 to 2010 as Simulated by MOSAIC Module in CESM2‐MAM4 journal August 2021
Aerosol forcing in the Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) simulations by HadGEM2-ES and the role of ammonium nitrate journal January 2011
A parameterization of aerosol activation: 2. Multiple aerosol types journal March 2000
OCEANFILMS (Organic Compounds from Ecosystems to Aerosols: Natural Films and Interfaces via Langmuir Molecular Surfactants) sea spray organic aerosol emissions – implementation in a global climate model and impacts on clouds journal January 2022
Technical Note: Estimating aerosol effects on cloud radiative forcing journal January 2013
Technical Note: On the use of nudging for aerosol–climate model intercomparison studies journal January 2014
Evaluation of aerosol indirect radiative forcing in MIRAGE journal March 2001
Constraining the influence of natural variability to improve estimates of global aerosol indirect effects in a nudged version of the Community Atmosphere Model 5: ESTIMATES OF AEROSOL INDIRECT EFFECTS journal December 2012
New Primary Ice-Nucleation Parameterizations in an Explicit Cloud Model journal July 1992
Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds: The Software Package OPAC journal May 1998
Exploring dimethyl sulfide (DMS) oxidation and implications for global aerosol radiative forcing journal January 2022
Albedo susceptibility of northeastern Pacific stratocumulus: the role of covarying meteorological conditions journal January 2022
Wind reduction by aerosol particles journal January 2006
Effective radiative forcing and adjustments in CMIP6 models journal January 2020