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Title: The efficacy of aerosol–cloud radiative perturbations from near-surface emissions in deep open-cell stratocumuli

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [3]
  1. Carnegie Inst. of Science, Stanford, CA (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

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.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1496615
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-140346
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Online), Vol. 18, Issue 23; ISSN 1680-7324
Publisher:
European Geosciences UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (3)

The Impact of Ship Emission Controls Recorded by Cloud Properties journal November 2019
Weak average liquid-cloud-water response to anthropogenic aerosols journal July 2019
Deconvolution of boundary layer depth and aerosol constraints on cloud water path in subtropical stratocumulus decks journal January 2020

Figures / Tables (8)

Table 1(p. 3)table Table 1
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Table 2(p. 6)table Table 2
Figure 3(p. 7)figure Figure 3
Figure 4(p. 8)figure Figure 4
Figure 5(p. 10)figure Figure 5
Figure 6(p. 11)figure Figure 6

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