Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks
Abstract
Global climate models (GCMs) have been used widely to study radiative forcing and health risks of aerosols. A recent study using two GCMs found that light rain plays a dominant role in controlling aerosol loading. However, “too much light rain and too little heavy rain” is a longstanding bias in GCMs. It is unclear how much light rain affects aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions and health risks from air pollution. Here, in this work, we show that, with the correction of the rainfall intensity spectrum in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model version 5.3 by introducing a stochastic deep convection scheme, the reduced frequency of light rain (1–20 mm d-1) results in changes of aerosol direct radiative effects (DRE) of up to -0.5 ± 0.03 W/m2 and aerosol cloud radiative effects (CRE) of up to -0.9 ± 0.03 W/m2. The total (CRE + DRE) radiative effects of light rain-mediated aerosol changes exceed the present-day anthropogenic forcing of aerosols relative to preindustrial levels from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5&6) models. However, the correction of the rainfall intensity spectrum has little effect on anthropogenic aerosol forcing (defined as the radiative perturbation due to changes in aerosol concentrations between the industrial eramore »
- Authors:
-
- Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China)
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA (United States)
- Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (China); Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Key Research and Development Program of China; National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1978551
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0022064; 2017YFA0604000; 41975126
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 127; Journal Issue: 9; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; stochastic deep convection parameterization; light rainfall; aerosol radiative effects; aerosol health risks
Citation Formats
Wang, Yong, Xia, Wenwen, Zhang, Guang J., Wang, Bin, and Lin, Guangxing. Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1029/2021jd036204.
Wang, Yong, Xia, Wenwen, Zhang, Guang J., Wang, Bin, & Lin, Guangxing. Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021jd036204
Wang, Yong, Xia, Wenwen, Zhang, Guang J., Wang, Bin, and Lin, Guangxing. Tue .
"Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021jd036204. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1978551.
@article{osti_1978551,
title = {Impacts of Suppressing Excessive Light Rain on Aerosol Radiative Effects and Health Risks},
author = {Wang, Yong and Xia, Wenwen and Zhang, Guang J. and Wang, Bin and Lin, Guangxing},
abstractNote = {Global climate models (GCMs) have been used widely to study radiative forcing and health risks of aerosols. A recent study using two GCMs found that light rain plays a dominant role in controlling aerosol loading. However, “too much light rain and too little heavy rain” is a longstanding bias in GCMs. It is unclear how much light rain affects aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions and health risks from air pollution. Here, in this work, we show that, with the correction of the rainfall intensity spectrum in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model version 5.3 by introducing a stochastic deep convection scheme, the reduced frequency of light rain (1–20 mm d-1) results in changes of aerosol direct radiative effects (DRE) of up to -0.5 ± 0.03 W/m2 and aerosol cloud radiative effects (CRE) of up to -0.9 ± 0.03 W/m2. The total (CRE + DRE) radiative effects of light rain-mediated aerosol changes exceed the present-day anthropogenic forcing of aerosols relative to preindustrial levels from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5&6) models. However, the correction of the rainfall intensity spectrum has little effect on anthropogenic aerosol forcing (defined as the radiative perturbation due to changes in aerosol concentrations between the industrial era and preindustrial levels). Due to increased exposure to fine particulates (PM2.5), the estimated global total premature mortality is much higher than previously estimated, by 300,000 ± 60,000 deaths per year, and is more severe in populous regions such as India and China. The findings in this study highlight the need to understand uncertainties in radiative effects and health risks of aerosols due to simulation biases of precipitation in GCMs.},
doi = {10.1029/2021jd036204},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres},
number = 9,
volume = 127,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022},
month = {Tue Apr 26 00:00:00 EDT 2022}
}
Works referenced in this record:
The Influence of Pollution on the Shortwave Albedo of Clouds
journal, July 1977
- Twomey, S.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 34, Issue 7
A likely increase in fine particulate matter and premature mortality under future climate change
journal, January 2020
- Park, S.; Allen, R. J.; Lim, C. H.
- Air Quality, Atmosphere & Health, Vol. 13, Issue 2
The Impact of Process‐Based Warm Rain Constraints on the Aerosol Indirect Effect
journal, October 2018
- Jing, Xianwen; Suzuki, Kentaroh
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 19
Precipitation Probability and Its Future Changes From a Global Cloud‐Resolving Model and CMIP6 Simulations
journal, February 2020
- Na, Ying; Fu, Qiang; Kodama, Chihiro
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 125, Issue 5
Future global mortality from changes in air pollution attributable to climate change
journal, July 2017
- Silva, Raquel A.; West, J. Jason; Lamarque, Jean-François
- Nature Climate Change, Vol. 7, Issue 9
Disproportionate control on aerosol burden by light rain
journal, January 2021
- Wang, Yong; Xia, Wenwen; Liu, Xiaohong
- Nature Geoscience, Vol. 14, Issue 2
Toward a minimal representation of aerosols in climate models: description and evaluation in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5
journal, January 2012
- Liu, X.; Easter, R. C.; Ghan, S. J.
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 5, Issue 3
Bounding global aerosol radiative forcing of climate change
journal, November 2019
- Bellouin, N.; Quaas, J.; Gryspeerdt, E.
- Reviews of Geophysics
Significant underestimation of radiative forcing by aerosol–cloud interactions derived from satellite-based methods
journal, June 2021
- Jia, Hailing; Ma, Xiaoyan; Yu, Fangqun
- Nature Communications, Vol. 12, Issue 1
Uncertainty assessment of current size-resolved parameterizations for below-cloud particle scavenging by rain
journal, January 2010
- Wang, X.; Zhang, L.; Moran, M. D.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 12
A Stochastic Parameterization for Deep Convection Based on Equilibrium Statistics
journal, January 2008
- Plant, R. S.; Craig, G. C.
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 65, Issue 1
The Convective‐To‐Total Precipitation Ratio and the “Drizzling” Bias in Climate Models
journal, August 2021
- Chen, Di; Dai, Aiguo; Hall, Alex
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 126, Issue 16
Sensitivity of the Aerosol Indirect Effect to Subgrid Variability in the Cloud Parameterization of the GFDL Atmosphere General Circulation Model AM3
journal, July 2011
- Golaz, Jean-Christophe; Salzmann, Marc; Donner, Leo J.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 24, Issue 13
Global climate impacts of stochastic deep convection parameterization in the NCARCAM5: CLIMATE IMPACTS OF PC SCHEME IN CAM5
journal, October 2016
- Wang, Yong; Zhang, Guang J.
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 8, Issue 4
Global, regional, and national age-sex-specific mortality for 282 causes of death in 195 countries and territories, 1980–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017
journal, November 2018
- Roth, Gregory A.; Abate, Degu; Abate, Kalkidan Hassen
- The Lancet, Vol. 392, Issue 10159
Glacial–interglacial Nd isotope variability of North Atlantic Deep Water modulated by North American ice sheet
journal, December 2019
- Zhao, Ning; Oppo, Delia W.; Huang, Kuo-Fang
- Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1
Sensitivity of climate simulations to the parameterization of cumulus convection in the Canadian climate centre general circulation model
journal, September 1995
- Zhang, G. J.; McFarlane, Norman A.
- Atmosphere-Ocean, Vol. 33, Issue 3
Different contact angle distributions for heterogeneous ice nucleation in the Community Atmospheric Model version 5
journal, January 2014
- Wang, Y.; Liu, X.; Hoose, C.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 19
Recommendations for diagnosing effective radiative forcing from climate models for CMIP6: RECOMMENDED EFFECTIVE RADIATIVE FORCING
journal, October 2016
- Forster, Piers M.; Richardson, Thomas; Maycock, Amanda C.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 121, Issue 20
Aerosols, Cloud Microphysics, and Fractional Cloudiness
journal, September 1989
- Albrecht, B. A.
- Science, Vol. 245, Issue 4923
Fugitive Road Dust PM 2.5 Emissions and Their Potential Health Impacts
journal, May 2019
- Chen, Siyu; Zhang, Xiaorui; Lin, Jintai
- Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 53, Issue 14
A description of the global sulfur cycle and its controlling processes in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model, Version 3
journal, January 2000
- Rasch, Philip J.; Barth, Mary C.; Kiehl, Jeffrey T.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 105, Issue D1
Decomposing aerosol cloud radiative effects into cloud cover, liquid water path and Twomey components in marine stratocumulus
journal, March 2014
- Goren, Tom; Rosenfeld, Daniel
- Atmospheric Research, Vol. 138
Surface Irradiances of Edition 4.0 Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) Energy Balanced and Filled (EBAF) Data Product
journal, June 2018
- Kato, Seiji; Rose, Fred G.; Rutan, David A.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 31, Issue 11
Time units for learning involving maintenance of system-wide cFos expression in neuronal assemblies
journal, October 2018
- Chowdhury, Ananya; Caroni, Pico
- Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1
Simulation of Precipitation Extremes Using a Stochastic Convective Parameterization in the NCAR CAM5 Under Different Resolutions
journal, December 2017
- Wang, Yong; Zhang, Guang J.; He, Yu‐Jun
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 122, Issue 23
The Impact of Convection on ENSO: From a Delayed Oscillator to a Series of Events
journal, November 2008
- Neale, Richard B.; Richter, Jadwiga H.; Jochum, Markus
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 21, Issue 22
Addressing Global Mortality from Ambient PM 2.5
journal, June 2015
- Apte, Joshua S.; Marshall, Julian D.; Cohen, Aaron J.
- Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 49, Issue 13
Technical Note: Estimating aerosol effects on cloud radiative forcing
journal, January 2013
- Ghan, S. J.
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 13, Issue 19
Effects of coupling a stochastic convective parameterization with the Zhang–McFarlane scheme on precipitation simulation in the DOE E3SMv1.0 atmosphere model
journal, January 2021
- Wang, Yong; Zhang, Guang J.; Xie, Shaocheng
- Geoscientific Model Development, Vol. 14, Issue 3
A New Cloud Physics Parameterization in a Large-Eddy Simulation Model of Marine Stratocumulus
journal, January 2000
- Khairoutdinov, Marat; Kogan, Yefim
- Monthly Weather Review, Vol. 128, Issue 1
A New Moist Turbulence Parameterization in the Community Atmosphere Model
journal, June 2009
- Bretherton, Christopher S.; Park, Sungsu
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 22, Issue 12
The University of Washington Shallow Convection and Moist Turbulence Schemes and Their Impact on Climate Simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model
journal, June 2009
- Park, Sungsu; Bretherton, Christopher S.
- Journal of Climate, Vol. 22, Issue 12
Global anthropogenic aerosol direct forcing derived from satellite and ground-based observations
journal, January 2005
- Chung, Chul Eddy; Ramanathan, V.; Kim, Dohyeong
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 110, Issue D24
Isolating the Meteorological Impact of 21st Century GHG Warming on the Removal and Atmospheric Loading of Anthropogenic Fine Particulate Matter Pollution at Global Scale
journal, March 2018
- Xu, Yangyang; Lamarque, Jean‐François
- Earth's Future, Vol. 6, Issue 3
Stochastic convective parameterization improving the simulation of tropical precipitation variability in the NCAR CAM5: STOCHASTIC CONVECTIVE PARAMETERIZATION
journal, June 2016
- Wang, Yong; Zhang, Guang J.; Craig, George C.
- Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, Issue 12
An Integrated Risk Function for Estimating the Global Burden of Disease Attributable to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter Exposure
journal, April 2014
- Burnett, Richard T.; Pope, C. Arden; Ezzati, Majid
- Environmental Health Perspectives, Vol. 122, Issue 4
Meteorological Influences on Anthropogenic PM
2.5
in Future Climates: Species Level Analysis in the Community Earth System Model v2
journal, February 2022
- Banks, Alison; Kooperman, Gabriel J.; Xu, Yangyang
- Earth's Future, Vol. 10, Issue 2
Quantifying components of aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions in climate models
journal, June 2014
- Zelinka, Mark D.; Andrews, Timothy; Forster, Piers M.
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Vol. 119, Issue 12
Cause-specific premature death from ambient PM2.5 exposure in India: Estimate adjusted for baseline mortality
journal, May 2016
- Chowdhury, Sourangsu; Dey, Sagnik
- Environment International, Vol. 91
Effective radiative forcing and adjustments in CMIP6 models
journal, January 2020
- Smith, Christopher J.; Kramer, Ryan J.; Myhre, Gunnar
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 20, Issue 16
Decreasing Dust Over the Middle East Partly Caused by Irrigation Expansion
journal, January 2022
- Xia, Wenwen; Wang, Yong; Wang, Bin
- Earth's Future, Vol. 10, Issue 1