Distinct roles of land cover in regulating spatial variabilities of temperature responses to radiative effects of aerosols and clouds

Journal Article · Thu Dec 16 00:00:00 UTC 2021 · Environmental Research Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3f04 · OSTI ID:1979444

Wei, Linyi ^[1]; Wang, Yong ^[2]; Liu, Shu ^[2]; Zhang, Guang J. ^[3]; Wang, Bin ^[4]

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1. Tsinghua University, Beijing (China); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
2. Tsinghua University, Beijing (China)
3. The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA (United States)
4. Tsinghua University, Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China); University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)

Surface temperature responses to radiative perturbations due to aerosols and clouds are complicated by the land surface properties. To disentangle these complexities, this study, from a terrestrial surface energy budget perspective, isolates the underlying biophysical processes from the instantaneous radiative effects of aerosols and clouds on surface temperature using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Earth System Model version 1.2.1. It is found that in comparison with the global heterogeneous distributions of instantaneous radiative perturbations at the surface induced by aerosols and clouds, the spatial variations of the corresponding surface temperature responses to aerosol direct radiative effects (DRE) during the daytime and cloud radiative effects (CRE) during the nighttime are amplified. It is because of the consistent global distribution of the local surface climate sensitivity (a function of land cover properties such as surface roughness and Bowen ratio) with those of daytime DRE and nighttime CRE. By applying identical anthropogenic aerosol and precursor emissions over eight major past, present and projected future anthropogenic aerosol emitting regions (i.e. Brazil, China, East Africa, India, Indonesia, South Africa, United States and Western Europe), surface temperature responses to aerosol radiative cooling in the daytime and cloud radiative warming in the nighttime over these regions positively regulated by local surface climate sensitivities are prominent.

• Research Organization: University of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0019373
• OSTI ID: 1979444
• Journal Information: Environmental Research Letters, Journal Name: Environmental Research Letters Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 16; ISSN 1748-9326
• Publisher: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English