Simulated responses of terrestrial aridity to black carbon and sulfate aerosols
Abstract
Aridity index (AI), defined as the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (PET), is a measure of the dryness of terrestrial climate. Global climate models generally project future decreases of AI (drying) associated with global warming scenarios driven by increasing greenhouse gas and declining aerosols. Given their different effects in the climate system, scattering and absorbing aerosols may affect AI differently. In this work, we explore the terrestrial aridity responses to anthropogenic black carbon (BC) and sulfate (SO4) aerosols with Community Earth System Model simulations. Positive BC radiative forcing decreases precipitation averaged over global land at a rate of 0.9%/°C of global mean surface temperature increase (moderate drying), while BC radiative forcing increases PET by 1.0%/°C (also drying). BC leads to a global decrease of 1.9%/°C in AI (drying). SO4 forcing is negative and causes precipitation a decrease at a rate of 6.7%/°C cooling (strong drying). PET also decreases in response to SO4 aerosol cooling by 6.3%/°C cooling (contributing to moistening). Thus, SO4 cooling leads to a small decrease in AI (drying) by 0.4%/°C cooling. Despite the opposite effects on global mean temperature, BC and SO4 both contribute to the twentieth century drying (AI decrease). Sensitivity test indicates that surfacemore »
- Authors:
-
- Lanzhou Univ. (China). College of Atmospheric Sciences
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
- Lanzhou Univ. (China). College of Atmospheric Sciences; Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); National Basic Research Program of China; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1438461
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FC02-97ER62402; 41521004; 41275070; 41405010; 2012CB955303; lzujbky‐2015‐k02
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 121; Journal Issue: 2; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; aridity; precipitation; PET; sulfate; black carbon; CO2
Citation Formats
Lin, L., Gettelman, A., Xu, Y., and Fu, Q. Simulated responses of terrestrial aridity to black carbon and sulfate aerosols. United States: N. p., 2016.
Web. doi:10.1002/2015JD024100.
Lin, L., Gettelman, A., Xu, Y., & Fu, Q. Simulated responses of terrestrial aridity to black carbon and sulfate aerosols. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD024100
Lin, L., Gettelman, A., Xu, Y., and Fu, Q. Wed .
"Simulated responses of terrestrial aridity to black carbon and sulfate aerosols". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JD024100. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1438461.
@article{osti_1438461,
title = {Simulated responses of terrestrial aridity to black carbon and sulfate aerosols},
author = {Lin, L. and Gettelman, A. and Xu, Y. and Fu, Q.},
abstractNote = {Aridity index (AI), defined as the ratio of precipitation to potential evapotranspiration (PET), is a measure of the dryness of terrestrial climate. Global climate models generally project future decreases of AI (drying) associated with global warming scenarios driven by increasing greenhouse gas and declining aerosols. Given their different effects in the climate system, scattering and absorbing aerosols may affect AI differently. In this work, we explore the terrestrial aridity responses to anthropogenic black carbon (BC) and sulfate (SO4) aerosols with Community Earth System Model simulations. Positive BC radiative forcing decreases precipitation averaged over global land at a rate of 0.9%/°C of global mean surface temperature increase (moderate drying), while BC radiative forcing increases PET by 1.0%/°C (also drying). BC leads to a global decrease of 1.9%/°C in AI (drying). SO4 forcing is negative and causes precipitation a decrease at a rate of 6.7%/°C cooling (strong drying). PET also decreases in response to SO4 aerosol cooling by 6.3%/°C cooling (contributing to moistening). Thus, SO4 cooling leads to a small decrease in AI (drying) by 0.4%/°C cooling. Despite the opposite effects on global mean temperature, BC and SO4 both contribute to the twentieth century drying (AI decrease). Sensitivity test indicates that surface temperature and surface available energy changes dominate BC- and SO4-induced PET changes.},
doi = {10.1002/2015JD024100},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres},
number = 2,
volume = 121,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Wed Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}
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