The efficacy of aerosol–cloud radiative perturbations from near-surface emissions in deep open-cell stratocumuli
Abstract
Aerosol–cloud radiative effects are determined and quantified in simulationsof deep open-cell stratocumuli observed during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-LandStudy Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) campaign offthe west coast of Chile. The cloud deck forms in a boundarylayer 1.5km deep, with cell sizes reaching 50km in diameter. Global databases of shiptracks suggest that these linear structures are seldom found in boundarylayers this deep. Here, we quantify the changes in cloud radiative propertiesto a continuous aerosol point source moving along a fixed emission linereleasing 1017 particles per second. We show that a spatially coherentcloud perturbation is not evident along the emission line. Yet our modelsimulates an increase in domain-mean all-sky albedo of 0.05, corresponding toa diurnally averaged cloud radiative effect of 20W m-2, given theannual mean solar insolation at the VOCALS-REx site. Therefore, markedchanges in cloud radiative properties in precipitating deep open cells may bedriven by anthropogenic near-surface aerosol perturbations, such as thosegenerated by ships.Furthermore, we demonstrate that these changes in cloud radiative propertiesare masked by the naturally occurring variability within the organised cloudfield. A clear detection and attribution of cloud radiative effects to aperturbation in aerosol concentrations becomes possible when sub-filtering ofthe cloud field is applied, using the spatio-temporal distribution of theaerosol perturbation. Therefore, thismore »
- Authors:
-
[1];
[3];
- Carnegie Inst. of Science, Stanford, CA (United States)
- Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1496615
- Report Number(s):
- PNNL-SA-140346
Journal ID: ISSN 1680-7324
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online); Journal Volume: 18; Journal Issue: 23; Journal ID: ISSN 1680-7324
- Publisher:
- European Geosciences Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Possner, Anna, Wang, Hailong, Wood, Robert, Caldeira, Ken, and Ackerman, Thomas P. The efficacy of aerosol–cloud radiative perturbations from near-surface emissions in deep open-cell stratocumuli. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.5194/acp-18-17475-2018.
Possner, Anna, Wang, Hailong, Wood, Robert, Caldeira, Ken, & Ackerman, Thomas P. The efficacy of aerosol–cloud radiative perturbations from near-surface emissions in deep open-cell stratocumuli. United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17475-2018
Possner, Anna, Wang, Hailong, Wood, Robert, Caldeira, Ken, and Ackerman, Thomas P. Tue .
"The efficacy of aerosol–cloud radiative perturbations from near-surface emissions in deep open-cell stratocumuli". United States. https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17475-2018. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1496615.
@article{osti_1496615,
title = {The efficacy of aerosol–cloud radiative perturbations from near-surface emissions in deep open-cell stratocumuli},
author = {Possner, Anna and Wang, Hailong and Wood, Robert and Caldeira, Ken and Ackerman, Thomas P.},
abstractNote = {Aerosol–cloud radiative effects are determined and quantified in simulationsof deep open-cell stratocumuli observed during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud-Atmosphere-LandStudy Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx) campaign offthe west coast of Chile. The cloud deck forms in a boundarylayer 1.5km deep, with cell sizes reaching 50km in diameter. Global databases of shiptracks suggest that these linear structures are seldom found in boundarylayers this deep. Here, we quantify the changes in cloud radiative propertiesto a continuous aerosol point source moving along a fixed emission linereleasing 1017 particles per second. We show that a spatially coherentcloud perturbation is not evident along the emission line. Yet our modelsimulates an increase in domain-mean all-sky albedo of 0.05, corresponding toa diurnally averaged cloud radiative effect of 20W m-2, given theannual mean solar insolation at the VOCALS-REx site. Therefore, markedchanges in cloud radiative properties in precipitating deep open cells may bedriven by anthropogenic near-surface aerosol perturbations, such as thosegenerated by ships.Furthermore, we demonstrate that these changes in cloud radiative propertiesare masked by the naturally occurring variability within the organised cloudfield. A clear detection and attribution of cloud radiative effects to aperturbation in aerosol concentrations becomes possible when sub-filtering ofthe cloud field is applied, using the spatio-temporal distribution of theaerosol perturbation. Therefore, this work has implications for the detectionand attribution of effective cloud radiative forcing in marine stratocumuli,which constitutes one of the major physical uncertainties within the climatesystem. Our results suggest that ships may sometimes have a substantialradiative effect on marine clouds and albedo, even when ship tracks are notreadily visible.},
doi = {10.5194/acp-18-17475-2018},
journal = {Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)},
number = 23,
volume = 18,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Dec 11 00:00:00 EST 2018},
month = {Tue Dec 11 00:00:00 EST 2018}
}
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Cited by: 19 works
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Figures / Tables:
Table 1: Spatio-temporal averages of liquid water path (LWP), surface precipitation ($R$sfc), cloud base precipitation ($R$cb), cloud fraction (CF), sub-cloud mean boundary layer aerosol concentration ($N$a_sub) and cloud-top droplet number concentration ($N$d_top) are presented. The first row containing data shows the observations of the open-cell stratocumulus deck obtained during researchmore »
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Figures / Tables found in this record:
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