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Title: Improving our fundamental understanding of the role of aerosol-cloud interactions in the climate system

Journal Article · · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9]; ORCiD logo [10];  [8]; ORCiD logo [5];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [11];  [11];  [14];  [8];  [5] more »;  [15];  [16];  [2] « less
  1. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Leeds, Leeds (United Kingdom)
  4. Univ. of Manchester, Manchester (United Kingdom)
  5. Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States)
  6. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, D.C. (United States)
  7. National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Boulder, CO (United States)
  8. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  9. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  10. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
  11. Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States)
  12. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); Institute of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Petras (Greece); National Observatory of Athens, Palea-Pendeli (Greece)
  13. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
  14. Princeton Univ. and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Princeton, NJ (United States)
  15. The Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem, Jerusalem (Israel)
  16. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Pasadena, CA (United States)

The effect of an increase in atmospheric aerosol concentrations on the distribution and radiative properties of Earth’s clouds is the most uncertain component of the overall global radiative forcing from pre-industrial time. General Circulation Models (GCMs) are the tool for predicting future climate, but the treatment of aerosols, clouds, and aerosol-cloud radiative effects carries large uncertainties that directly affect GCM predictions, such as climate sensitivity. Predictions are hampered by the large range of scales of interaction between various components that need to be captured. Observation systems (remote sensing, in situ) are increasingly being used to constrain predictions but significant challenges exist, to some extent because of the large range of scales and the fact that the various measuring systems tend to address different scales. Fine-scale models represent clouds, aerosols, and aerosol-cloud interactions with high fidelity but do not include interactions with the larger scale and are therefore limited from a climatic point of view. Lastly, we suggest strategies for improving estimates of aerosol-cloud relationships in climate models, for new remote sensing and in situ measurements, and for quantifying and reducing model uncertainty.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1327134
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-115586; KP1703020
Journal Information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 113, Issue 21; ISSN 0027-8424
Publisher:
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (United States)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 391 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Retrieval of ice-nucleating particle concentrations from lidar observations and comparison with UAV in situ measurements journal January 2019
Impact of isolated atmospheric aging processes on the cloud condensation nuclei activation of soot particles journal January 2019
Evaluation of global simulations of aerosol particle and cloud condensation nuclei number, with implications for cloud droplet formation journal January 2019
The source of discrepancies in aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions between GCM and A-Train retrievals journal January 2016
Long-term cloud condensation nuclei number concentration, particle number size distribution and chemical composition measurements at regionally representative observatories text January 2018
Prognostic Precipitation in the MIROC6‐SPRINTARS GCM: Description and Evaluation Against Satellite Observations journal March 2019
Decrease in radiative forcing by organic aerosol nucleation, climate, and land use change journal January 2019
Long-term variability of the cloud amount and cloud genera and their relationship with circulation (Kraków, Poland): CHANGES IN CLOUDINESS DEPENDING ON CIRCULATION (KRAKÓW, POLAND) journal February 2018
CCN Activity, Variability and Influence on Droplet Formation during the HygrA-Cd Campaign in Athens journal June 2017
Perspectives on the Future of Ice Nucleation Research: Research Needs and Unanswered Questions Identified from Two International Workshops journal July 2017
Long-term cloud condensation nuclei number concentration, particle number size distribution and chemical composition measurements at regionally representative observatories text January 2018
Regional new particle formation as modulators of cloud condensation nuclei and cloud droplet number in the eastern Mediterranean journal January 2019
Monthly solar radiation in the tropical Atlantic Ocean: Can its spatial variations be captured by the current configuration of the PIRATA moorings? journal January 2018
Interrelations between surface, boundary layer, and columnar aerosol properties derived in summer and early autumn over a continental urban site in Warsaw, Poland journal January 2019
Satellite observations of aerosols and clouds over southern China from 2006 to 2015: analysis of changes and possible interaction mechanisms journal January 2020
Perspectives on the Future of Ice Nucleation Research: Research Needs and Unanswered Questions Identified from Two International Workshops text January 2017
Aerosol mixing state matters for particles deposition in human respiratory system journal June 2018
Quantifying the impact of climate variables on reference evapotranspiration in Pearl River Basin, China journal October 2019
Overview and preliminary results of the Surface Ocean Aerosol Production (SOAP) campaign journal January 2017
Aerosol chemistry, transport, and climatic implications during extreme biomass burning emissions over the Indo-Gangetic Plain journal January 2018
Aerosol and physical atmosphere model parameters are both important sources of uncertainty in aerosol ERF journal January 2018
Transition Zone Radiative Effects in Shortwave Radiation Parameterizations: Case of Weather Research and Forecasting Model journal December 2019
Ice-nucleating particles in a coastal tropical site journal January 2019
Effect of dry or wet substrate deposition on the organic volume fraction of core–shell aerosol particles journal January 2019
Reduced European aerosol emissions suppress winter extremes over northern Eurasia journal February 2020
MDPI Oceans: A New Publication Channel for Open Access Science Focused on the Ocean journal August 2019
Retrieval of ice-nucleating particle concentrations from lidar observations and comparison with UAV in situ measurements null January 2019
Type‐Dependent Responses of Ice Cloud Properties to Aerosols From Satellite Retrievals journal April 2018
Numerical, wind-tunnel, and atmospheric evaluation of a turbulent ground-based inlet sampling system journal April 2019
Organic aerosol in the summertime southeastern United States: components and their link to volatility distribution, oxidation state and hygroscopicity journal January 2018
Blue and green luminescent carbon nanodots from controllable fuel-rich flame reactors journal October 2019
Cloud scavenging of anthropogenic refractory particles at a mountain site in North China journal January 2018
Urban pollution greatly enhances formation of natural aerosols over the Amazon rainforest journal March 2019
Collocated observations of cloud condensation nuclei, particle size distributions, and chemical composition text January 2017
Aerosol effect on the evolution of the thermodynamic properties of warm convective cloud fields journal December 2016
Analysis of a severe dust storm and its impact on air quality conditions using WRF-Chem modeling, satellite imagery, and ground observations journal February 2019
Physical state of 2-methylbutane-1,2,3,4-tetraol in pure and internally mixed aerosols journal January 2018
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Evaluating cloud properties in an ensemble of regional online coupled models against satellite observations journal January 2018
Satellite detection of aerosol-produced temperature change journal June 2019
Aerosol-induced changes in the vertical structure of precipitation: a perspective of TRMM precipitation radar journal January 2018
New particle formation leads to cloud dimming journal May 2018
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The Radiative Forcing of Aerosol–Cloud Interactions in Liquid Clouds: Wrestling and Embracing Uncertainty journal February 2018
Ice nucleation by aerosols from anthropogenic pollution journal July 2019
Modeling of Atmospheric Aerosol Properties in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area: Impact of Biomass Burning journal September 2018
Building a cloud in the southeast Atlantic: understanding low-cloud controls based on satellite observations with machine learning text January 2018
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Forests, atmospheric water and an uncertain future: the new biology of the global water cycle journal March 2018
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Characterizing the Relative Importance Assigned to Physical Variables by Climate Scientists when Assessing Atmospheric Climate Model Fidelity journal July 2018
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