TY - JOUR
T1 - Process Modeling of Aerosol-Cloud Interaction in Summertime Precipitating Shallow Cumulus Over the Western North Atlantic
AU - Li, Xiang Yu
AU - Wang, Hailong
AU - Christensen, Matthew W.
AU - Chen, Jingyi
AU - Tang, Shuaiqi
AU - Kirschler, Simon
AU - Crosbie, Ewan
AU - Ziemba, Luke D.
AU - Painemal, David
AU - Corral, Andrea F.
AU - McCauley, Kayla Ann
AU - Dmitrovic, Sanja
AU - Sorooshian, Armin
AU - Fenn, Marta
AU - Schlosser, Joseph S.
AU - Stamnes, Snorre
AU - Hair, Johnathan W.
AU - Cairns, Brian
AU - Moore, Richard
AU - Ferrare, Richard Anthony
AU - Shook, Michael A.
AU - Choi, Yonghoon
AU - Diskin, Glenn S.
AU - DiGangi, Joshua
AU - Nowak, John B.
AU - Robinson, Claire
AU - Shingler, Taylor J.
AU - Lee Thornhill, Kenneth
AU - Voigt, Christiane
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Battelle Memorial Institute and The Authors. This article has been contributed to by U.S. Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.
PY - 2024/4/16
Y1 - 2024/4/16
N2 - Process modeling of Aerosol-cloud interaction (ACI) is essential to bridging gaps between observational analysis and climate modeling of aerosol effects in the Earth system and eventually reducing climate projection uncertainties. In this study, we examine ACI in summertime precipitating shallow cumuli observed during the Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE). Aerosols and precipitating shallow cumuli were extensively observed with in-situ and remote-sensing instruments during two research flight cases on 02 June and 07 June, respectively, during the ACTIVATE summer 2021 deployment phase. We perform observational analysis and large-eddy simulation (LES) of aerosol effect on precipitating cumulus in these two cases. Given the measured aerosol size distributions and meteorological conditions, LES is able to reproduce the observed cloud properties by aircraft such as liquid water content (LWC), cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) and effective radius reff. However, it produces smaller liquid water path (LWP) and larger Nc compared to the satellite retrievals. Both 02 and 07 June cases are over warm waters of the Gulf Stream and have a cloud top height over 3 km, but the 07 June case is more polluted and has larger LWC. We find that the Na-induced LWP adjustment is dominated by precipitation feedback for the 2 June precipitating case and there is no clear entrainment feedback in both cases. An increase of cloud fraction due to a decrease of aerosol number concentration is also shown in the simulations for the 02 June case.
AB - Process modeling of Aerosol-cloud interaction (ACI) is essential to bridging gaps between observational analysis and climate modeling of aerosol effects in the Earth system and eventually reducing climate projection uncertainties. In this study, we examine ACI in summertime precipitating shallow cumuli observed during the Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE). Aerosols and precipitating shallow cumuli were extensively observed with in-situ and remote-sensing instruments during two research flight cases on 02 June and 07 June, respectively, during the ACTIVATE summer 2021 deployment phase. We perform observational analysis and large-eddy simulation (LES) of aerosol effect on precipitating cumulus in these two cases. Given the measured aerosol size distributions and meteorological conditions, LES is able to reproduce the observed cloud properties by aircraft such as liquid water content (LWC), cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) and effective radius reff. However, it produces smaller liquid water path (LWP) and larger Nc compared to the satellite retrievals. Both 02 and 07 June cases are over warm waters of the Gulf Stream and have a cloud top height over 3 km, but the 07 June case is more polluted and has larger LWC. We find that the Na-induced LWP adjustment is dominated by precipitation feedback for the 2 June precipitating case and there is no clear entrainment feedback in both cases. An increase of cloud fraction due to a decrease of aerosol number concentration is also shown in the simulations for the 02 June case.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85189175540
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85189175540#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1029/2023JD039489
DO - 10.1029/2023JD039489
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85189175540
SN - 2169-897X
VL - 129
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
IS - 7
M1 - e2023JD039489
ER -