Articles | Volume 15, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7351-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7351-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
08 Jul 2015
Research article |
| 08 Jul 2015
On the reversibility of transitions between closed and open cellular convection
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), Boulder, Colorado, USA
Weizmann Institute, Rehovot, Israel
T. Yamaguchi
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), Boulder, Colorado, USA
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), Boulder, Colorado, USA
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, USA
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Robert Pincus, Chris W. Fairall, Adriana Bailey, Haonan Chen, Patrick Y. Chuang, Gijs de Boer, Graham Feingold, Dean Henze, Quinn T. Kalen, Jan Kazil, Mason Leandro, Ashley Lundry, Ken Moran, Dana A. Naeher, David Noone, Akshar J. Patel, Sergio Pezoa, Ivan PopStefanija, Elizabeth J. Thompson, James Warnecke, and Paquita Zuidema
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Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15079–15099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, 2020
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Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Franziska Glassmeier, Fabian Hoffmann, Jill S. Johnson, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Ken S. Carslaw, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10191–10203, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10191-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10191-2019, 2019
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Carolin Klinger, Graham Feingold, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6295–6313, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6295-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6295-2019, 2019
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The effect of 1-D and 3-D thermal radiation on cloud droplet growth in shallow cumulus clouds is investigated using large eddy simulations with size-resolved cloud microphysics. A two-step approach is used for separating microphysical effects from dynamical feedbacks. In a parcel framework the main effect on rain production arises from recirculating parcels. Large eddy simulations show that radiative effects on dynamics are stronger than on microphysics, as far as rain production is concerned.
Maximilian Maahn, Gijs de Boer, Jessie M. Creamean, Graham Feingold, Greg M. McFarquhar, Wei Wu, and Fan Mei
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Elisa T. Sena, Allison McComiskey, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11301–11318, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11301-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11301-2016, 2016
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A new method for assessing aerosol effects on clouds is proposed. For the first time, 14 years of collocated, coincident ground-based observations have been used to study cloud–aerosol–meteorology–radiation interactions in the USA. For this site, the results indicate that the influence of the aerosol on cloud radiative effect and cloud albedo is weak, and that macroscopic cloud properties play a much larger role in determining the cloud radiative effect compared to aerosol effects.
Eunsil Jung, Bruce A. Albrecht, Graham Feingold, Haflidi H. Jonsson, Patrick Chuang, and Shaunna L. Donaher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8643–8666, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8643-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8643-2016, 2016
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This study discusses the properties and variations of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation associated with shallow marine cumulus clouds observed in the North-Atlantic trades during a field campaign (aircraft measurements), which included the most intense African dust event of 2010 at Barbados. The results provide characteristics of Saharan dust as well as marine shallow cumulus clouds from radar measurements, which can provide a basis for the numerical study.
Jan Kazil, Graham Feingold, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 5811–5839, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5811-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5811-2016, 2016
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Observed and projected trends in large-scale wind speed over the oceans prompt the question: how do marine clouds respond to changes in wind speed? This work presents an investigation of the dynamical response of marine low clouds to different wind speeds over 1 day.
A. Solomon, G. Feingold, and M. D. Shupe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10631–10643, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10631-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10631-2015, 2015
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The maintenance of cloud ice production in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus is investigated in large eddy simulations that include a prognostic ice nuclei (IN) formulation and a diurnal cycle. It is demonstrated that IN recycling through subcloud sublimation prolongs ice production. Competing feedbacks between dynamical mixing and recycling are found to slow the rate of ice lost. The results of this study have important implications for the maintenance of phase partitioning in Arctic clouds.
M. D. Fielding, J. C. Chiu, R. J. Hogan, G. Feingold, E. Eloranta, E. J. O'Connor, and M. P. Cadeddu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2663–2683, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2663-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2663-2015, 2015
T. Yamaguchi and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 1237–1251, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1237-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1237-2015, 2015
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Precipitation is necessary but insufficient for transformation to open cells from closed cells. The transformation to open cells occurs for sufficiently small droplet number concentration and/or large rain area. Both of these factors appear to be of similar importance. The distance selects the resulting state for rain regions that alone are too weak to initiate the transformation. The phase trajectory of the variance and mean cloud field properties follow one path.
Z. J. Lebo and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11817–11831, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11817-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11817-2014, 2014
M. K. Witte, P. Y. Chuang, and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6729–6738, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6729-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6729-2014, 2014
R. H. Heiblum, I. Koren, and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6063–6074, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6063-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6063-2014, 2014
J. Kazil, G. Feingold, H. Wang, and T. Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 61–79, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-61-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-61-2014, 2014
G. Feingold and I. Koren
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 20, 1011–1021, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-20-1011-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-20-1011-2013, 2013
S.-S. Lee and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6713–6726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6713-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6713-2013, 2013
J. L. Petters, H. Jiang, G. Feingold, D. L. Rossiter, D. Khelif, L. C. Sloan, and P. Y. Chuang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2507–2529, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2507-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2507-2013, 2013
Prasanth Prabhakaran, Timothy A. Myers, Fabian Hoffmann, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2935, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2935, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We explore how climate change and aerosol affect the evolution of marine low-clouds. Using high-resolution simulations, we find that warming has a stronger impact on these clouds, but aerosol becomes more important after the clouds form precipitation. Our results suggest that attempts to brighten these clouds using aerosol may become less effective in a warmer future due to the decrease in cloud cover.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Prasanth Prabhakaran, Fabian Hoffmann, Jan Kazil, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6141–6159, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6141-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6141-2025, 2025
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Injecting sea salt aerosols into marine stratiform clouds can distribute the cloud water over more droplets in smaller sizes. This process is expected to make the clouds brighter, allowing them to reflect more sunlight back to space. However, it may also cause the clouds to lose water over time, reducing their ability to reflect sunlight. We use a computer model to show that the loss of cloud water occurs relatively quickly and does not completely offset the initial brightening.
Huan Liu, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, and Shutian Mu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2574, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2574, 2025
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Clouds play a crucial role in Earth's climate by reflecting sunlight and trapping heat. Understanding how clouds respond to global warming (cloud feedback) is essential for climate change. However, the natural climate variability, like ENSO, can distort these estimates. Relying on long-term reanalysis data and simulations, this study finds that ENSO with a typical periodicity of 2–7 years can introduce a significant bias on cloud feedback estimates on even decadal to century time scales.
Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Jianhao Zhang, and Fabian Hoffmann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1869, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1869, 2025
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Scientists usually use snapshots of atmospheric data to glean understanding of time-evolving atmospheric processes. We examine how much can be learned about processes from snapshots using examples from cloud and atmospheric physics. We couch the analysis in terms of Boltzmann's theory of ergodic systems, space-time-exchange, and the Deborah number -- concepts that are commonly applied in other branches of physics. We discuss the reasons for the varying degrees of success.
Isabel L. McCoy, Sunil Baidar, Paquita Zuidema, Jan Kazil, W. Alan Brewer, Wayne M. Angevine, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-520, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-520, 2025
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We use ship observations to investigate the dynamics of small clouds over the tropical oceans. When these cumulus clouds cluster together, they become more efficient at moving moisture into the cloud layer due to strengthened vertical air motions. This encourages further clustering and sustains clouds against diurnal variations in their environment. Greater resilience to environmental changes has implications for cumulus feedback on the climate, a significant uncertainty in future projections.
Fabian Hoffmann, Yao-Sheng Chen, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3893, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3893, 2024
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Clouds reflect a substantial portion of the incoming solar radiation back into space. This capacity is determined by the number of cloud droplets, which in turn is influenced by the number of aerosol particles, forming the basis for aerosol-cloud-climate interactions. In this study, we use a simple mixed-layer approach to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water in non-precipitating stratocumulus.
Fabian Hoffmann, Franziska Glassmeier, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13403–13412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, 2024
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Clouds constitute a major cooling influence on Earth's climate system by reflecting a large fraction of the incident solar radiation back to space. This ability is controlled by the number of cloud droplets, which is governed by the number of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, laying the foundation for so-called aerosol–cloud–climate interactions. In this study, a simple model to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water is developed and applied.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Jianhao Zhang, Fabian Hoffmann, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Franziska Glassmeier, Xiaoli Zhou, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12661–12685, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12661-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12661-2024, 2024
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Marine stratocumulus cloud is a type of shallow cloud that covers the vast areas of Earth's surface. It plays an important role in Earth's energy balance by reflecting solar radiation back to space. We used numerical models to simulate a large number of marine stratocumuli with different characteristics. We found that how the clouds develop throughout the day is affected by the level of humidity in the air above the clouds and how closely the clouds connect to the ocean surface.
Jianhao Zhang, Yao-Sheng Chen, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10425–10440, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10425-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10425-2024, 2024
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Quantifying cloud response to aerosol perturbations presents a major challenge in understanding the human impact on climate. Using a large number of process-resolving simulations of marine stratocumulus, we show that solar heating drives a negative feedback mechanism that buffers the persistent negative trend in cloud water adjustment after sunrise. This finding has implications for the dependence of the cloud cooling effect on the timing of deliberate aerosol perturbations.
Manuel Santos Gutiérrez, Mickaël David Chekroun, and Ilan Koren
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.11545, https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2405.11545, 2024
Preprint withdrawn
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This letter explores a novel approach for the formation of cloud droplets in rising adiabatic air parcels. Our approach combines microphysical equations accounting for moisture, updrafts and concentration of aerosols. Our analysis reveals three regimes: A) Low moisture and high concentration can hinder activation; B) Droplets can activate and stabilize above critical sizes, and C) sparse clouds can have droplets exhibiting activation and deactivation cycles.
Prasanth Prabhakaran, Fabian Hoffmann, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1919–1937, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1919-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1919-2024, 2024
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In this study, we explore the impact of deliberate aerosol perturbation in the northeast Pacific region using large-eddy simulations. Our results show that cloud reflectivity is sensitive to the aerosol sprayer arrangement in the pristine system, whereas in the polluted system it is largely proportional to the total number of aerosol particles injected. These insights would aid in assessing the efficiency of various aerosol injection strategies for climate intervention applications.
Huan Liu, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, and Mickaël D. Chekroun
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6559–6569, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6559-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6559-2023, 2023
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Clouds' responses to global warming contribute the largest uncertainty in climate prediction. Here, we analyze 42 years of global cloud cover in reanalysis data and show a decreasing trend over most continents and an increasing trend over the tropical and subtropical oceans. A reduction in near-surface relative humidity can explain the decreasing trend in cloud cover over land. Our results suggest potential stress on the terrestrial water cycle, associated with global warming.
Hong Chen, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Steven T. Massie, Vikas Nataraja, Matthew S. Norgren, Jake J. Gristey, Graham Feingold, Robert E. Holz, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1971–2000, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1971-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1971-2023, 2023
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We introduce the Education and Research 3D Radiative Transfer Toolbox (EaR3T) and propose a radiance self-consistency approach for quantifying and mitigating 3D bias in legacy airborne and spaceborne imagery retrievals due to spatially inhomogeneous clouds and surfaces.
Jianhao Zhang and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1073–1090, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1073-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1073-2023, 2023
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Using observations from space, we show maps of potential brightness changes in marine warm clouds in response to increases in cloud droplet concentrations. The environmental and aerosol conditions in which these clouds reside covary differently in each ocean basin, leading to distinct evolutions of cloud brightness changes. This work stresses the central importance of the covariability between meteorology and aerosol for scaling up the radiative response of cloud brightness changes.
Peter A. Bogenschutz, Hsiang-He Lee, Qi Tang, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 335–352, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-335-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-335-2023, 2023
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Models that are used to simulate and predict climate often have trouble representing specific cloud types, such as stratocumulus, that are particularly thin in the vertical direction. It has been found that increasing the model resolution can help improve this problem. In this paper, we develop a novel framework that increases the horizontal and vertical resolutions only for areas of the globe that contain stratocumulus, hence reducing the model runtime while providing better results.
Elisa T. Sena, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, and Alexander B. Kostinski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 16111–16122, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16111-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16111-2022, 2022
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We used record-breaking statistics together with spatial information to create record-breaking SST maps. The maps reveal warming patterns in the overwhelming majority of the ocean and coherent islands of cooling, where low records occur more frequently than high ones. Some of these cooling spots are well known; however, a surprising elliptical area in the Southern Ocean is observed as well. Similar analyses can be performed on other key climatological variables to explore their trend patterns.
Michael S. Diamond, Pablo E. Saide, Paquita Zuidema, Andrew S. Ackerman, Sarah J. Doherty, Ann M. Fridlind, Hamish Gordon, Calvin Howes, Jan Kazil, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Jianhao Zhang, Graham Feingold, and Robert Wood
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12113–12151, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12113-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12113-2022, 2022
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Smoke from southern Africa blankets the southeast Atlantic from June-October, overlying a major transition region between overcast and scattered clouds. The smoke affects Earth's radiation budget by absorbing sunlight and changing cloud properties. We investigate these effects in regional climate and large eddy simulation models based on international field campaigns. We find that large-scale circulation changes more strongly affect cloud transitions than smoke microphysical effects in our case.
Vikas Nataraja, Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Jan Kazil, Graham Feingold, Kevin Wolf, and Hironobu Iwabuchi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5181–5205, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5181-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5181-2022, 2022
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A convolutional neural network (CNN) is introduced to retrieve cloud optical thickness (COT) from passive cloud imagery. The CNN, trained on large eddy simulations from the Sulu Sea, learns from spatial information at multiple scales to reduce cloud inhomogeneity effects. By considering the spatial context of a pixel, the CNN outperforms the traditional independent pixel approximation (IPA) across several cloud morphology metrics.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Franziska Glassmeier, Graham Feingold, Fabian Hoffmann, and Rebecca J. Murray-Watson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11727–11738, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11727-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11727-2022, 2022
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The response of clouds to changes in aerosol remains a large uncertainty in our understanding of the climate. Studies typically look at aerosol and cloud processes in snapshot images, measuring all properties at the same time. Here we use multiple images to characterise how cloud temporal development responds to aerosol. We find a reduction in liquid water path with increasing aerosol, party due to feedbacks. This suggests the aerosol impact on cloud water may be weaker than in previous studies.
Graham Feingold, Tom Goren, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3303–3319, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3303-2022, 2022
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The evaluation of radiative forcing associated with aerosol–cloud interactions remains a significant source of uncertainty in future climate projections. Using high-resolution numerical model output, we mimic typical satellite retrieval methodologies to show that data aggregation can introduce significant error (hundreds of percent) in the cloud albedo susceptibility metric. Spatial aggregation errors tend to be countered by temporal aggregation errors.
Jianhao Zhang, Xiaoli Zhou, Tom Goren, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 861–880, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-861-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-861-2022, 2022
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Oceanic liquid-form clouds are effective sunlight reflectors. Their brightness is highly sensitive to changes in the amount of aerosol particles in the atmosphere and the state of the atmosphere they reside in. This study quantifies this sensitivity using long-term satellite observations and finds an overall cloud brightening (a cooling effect) potential and an essential role of the covarying meteorological conditions in governing this sensitivity for northeastern Pacific stratocumulus.
Matthew W. Christensen, Andrew Gettelman, Jan Cermak, Guy Dagan, Michael Diamond, Alyson Douglas, Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Tom Goren, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Edward Gryspeerdt, Ralph Kahn, Zhanqing Li, Po-Lun Ma, Florent Malavelle, Isabel L. McCoy, Daniel T. McCoy, Greg McFarquhar, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sandip Pal, Anna Possner, Adam Povey, Johannes Quaas, Daniel Rosenfeld, Anja Schmidt, Roland Schrödner, Armin Sorooshian, Philip Stier, Velle Toll, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Mingxi Yang, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 641–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, 2022
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Trace gases and aerosols (tiny airborne particles) are released from a variety of point sources around the globe. Examples include volcanoes, industrial chimneys, forest fires, and ship stacks. These sources provide opportunistic experiments with which to quantify the role of aerosols in modifying cloud properties. We review the current state of understanding on the influence of aerosol on climate built from the wide range of natural and anthropogenic laboratories investigated in recent decades.
Eshkol Eytan, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, Mark Pinsky, and Alexander Khain
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16203–16217, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16203-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16203-2021, 2021
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Describing cloud mixing processes is among the most challenging fronts in cloud physics. Therefore, the adiabatic fraction (AF) that serves as a mixing measure is a valuable metric. We use high-resolution (10 m) simulations of single clouds with a passive tracer to test the skill of different methods used to derive AF. We highlight a method that is insensitive to the available cloud samples and allows considering microphysical effects on AF estimations in different environmental conditions.
Bjorn Stevens, Sandrine Bony, David Farrell, Felix Ament, Alan Blyth, Christopher Fairall, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia K. Quinn, Sabrina Speich, Claudia Acquistapace, Franziska Aemisegger, Anna Lea Albright, Hugo Bellenger, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Kathy-Ann Caesar, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Gijs de Boer, Julien Delanoë, Leif Denby, Florian Ewald, Benjamin Fildier, Marvin Forde, Geet George, Silke Gross, Martin Hagen, Andrea Hausold, Karen J. Heywood, Lutz Hirsch, Marek Jacob, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Kölling, Heike Konow, Marie Lothon, Wiebke Mohr, Ann Kristin Naumann, Louise Nuijens, Léa Olivier, Robert Pincus, Mira Pöhlker, Gilles Reverdin, Gregory Roberts, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, A. Pier Siebesma, Claudia Christine Stephan, Peter Sullivan, Ludovic Touzé-Peiffer, Jessica Vial, Raphaela Vogel, Paquita Zuidema, Nicola Alexander, Lyndon Alves, Sophian Arixi, Hamish Asmath, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Katharina Baier, Adriana Bailey, Dariusz Baranowski, Alexandre Baron, Sébastien Barrau, Paul A. Barrett, Frédéric Batier, Andreas Behrendt, Arne Bendinger, Florent Beucher, Sebastien Bigorre, Edmund Blades, Peter Blossey, Olivier Bock, Steven Böing, Pierre Bosser, Denis Bourras, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Keith Bower, Pierre Branellec, Hubert Branger, Michal Brennek, Alan Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Brilouet, Björn Brügmann, Stefan A. Buehler, Elmo Burke, Ralph Burton, Radiance Calmer, Jean-Christophe Canonici, Xavier Carton, Gregory Cato Jr., Jude Andre Charles, Patrick Chazette, Yanxu Chen, Michal T. Chilinski, Thomas Choularton, Patrick Chuang, Shamal Clarke, Hugh Coe, Céline Cornet, Pierre Coutris, Fleur Couvreux, Susanne Crewell, Timothy Cronin, Zhiqiang Cui, Yannis Cuypers, Alton Daley, Gillian M. Damerell, Thibaut Dauhut, Hartwig Deneke, Jean-Philippe Desbios, Steffen Dörner, Sebastian Donner, Vincent Douet, Kyla Drushka, Marina Dütsch, André Ehrlich, Kerry Emanuel, Alexandros Emmanouilidis, Jean-Claude Etienne, Sheryl Etienne-Leblanc, Ghislain Faure, Graham Feingold, Luca Ferrero, Andreas Fix, Cyrille Flamant, Piotr Jacek Flatau, Gregory R. Foltz, Linda Forster, Iulian Furtuna, Alan Gadian, Joseph Galewsky, Martin Gallagher, Peter Gallimore, Cassandra Gaston, Chelle Gentemann, Nicolas Geyskens, Andreas Giez, John Gollop, Isabelle Gouirand, Christophe Gourbeyre, Dörte de Graaf, Geiske E. de Groot, Robert Grosz, Johannes Güttler, Manuel Gutleben, Kashawn Hall, George Harris, Kevin C. Helfer, Dean Henze, Calvert Herbert, Bruna Holanda, Antonio Ibanez-Landeta, Janet Intrieri, Suneil Iyer, Fabrice Julien, Heike Kalesse, Jan Kazil, Alexander Kellman, Abiel T. Kidane, Ulrike Kirchner, Marcus Klingebiel, Mareike Körner, Leslie Ann Kremper, Jan Kretzschmar, Ovid Krüger, Wojciech Kumala, Armin Kurz, Pierre L'Hégaret, Matthieu Labaste, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Arlene Laing, Peter Landschützer, Theresa Lang, Diego Lange, Ingo Lange, Clément Laplace, Gauke Lavik, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Mason Leandro, Nathalie Lefevre, Marius Lena, Donald Lenschow, Qiang Li, Gary Lloyd, Sebastian Los, Niccolò Losi, Oscar Lovell, Christopher Luneau, Przemyslaw Makuch, Szymon Malinowski, Gaston Manta, Eleni Marinou, Nicholas Marsden, Sebastien Masson, Nicolas Maury, Bernhard Mayer, Margarette Mayers-Als, Christophe Mazel, Wayne McGeary, James C. McWilliams, Mario Mech, Melina Mehlmann, Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Theresa Mieslinger, Andreas Minikin, Peter Minnett, Gregor Möller, Yanmichel Morfa Avalos, Caroline Muller, Ionela Musat, Anna Napoli, Almuth Neuberger, Christophe Noisel, David Noone, Freja Nordsiek, Jakub L. Nowak, Lothar Oswald, Douglas J. Parker, Carolyn Peck, Renaud Person, Miriam Philippi, Albert Plueddemann, Christopher Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Ulrich Pöschl, Lawrence Pologne, Michał Posyniak, Marc Prange, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Jule Radtke, Karim Ramage, Jens Reimann, Lionel Renault, Klaus Reus, Ashford Reyes, Joachim Ribbe, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Cesar B. Rocha, Nicolas Rochetin, Johannes Röttenbacher, Callum Rollo, Haley Royer, Pauline Sadoulet, Leo Saffin, Sanola Sandiford, Irina Sandu, Michael Schäfer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Oliver Schlenczek, Jerome Schmidt, Marcel Schröder, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andrea Sealy, Christoph J. Senff, Ilya Serikov, Samkeyat Shohan, Elizabeth Siddle, Alexander Smirnov, Florian Späth, Branden Spooner, M. Katharina Stolla, Wojciech Szkółka, Simon P. de Szoeke, Stéphane Tarot, Eleni Tetoni, Elizabeth Thompson, Jim Thomson, Lorenzo Tomassini, Julien Totems, Alma Anna Ubele, Leonie Villiger, Jan von Arx, Thomas Wagner, Andi Walther, Ben Webber, Manfred Wendisch, Shanice Whitehall, Anton Wiltshire, Allison A. Wing, Martin Wirth, Jonathan Wiskandt, Kevin Wolf, Ludwig Worbes, Ethan Wright, Volker Wulfmeyer, Shanea Young, Chidong Zhang, Dongxiao Zhang, Florian Ziemen, Tobias Zinner, and Martin Zöger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign, designed to test hypothesized mechanisms by which clouds respond to warming and benchmark next-generation Earth-system models, is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. It was the first campaign that attempted to characterize the full range of processes and scales influencing trade wind clouds.
Tom Dror, Mickaël D. Chekroun, Orit Altaratz, and Ilan Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12261–12272, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12261-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12261-2021, 2021
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A part of continental shallow convective cumulus (Cu) was shown to share properties such as organization and formation over vegetated areas, thus named green Cu. Mechanisms behind the formed patterns are not understood. We use different metrics and an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) to decompose the dataset and quantify organization factors (cloud streets and gravity waves). We show that clouds form a highly organized grid structure over hundreds of kilometers at the field lifetime.
Robert Pincus, Chris W. Fairall, Adriana Bailey, Haonan Chen, Patrick Y. Chuang, Gijs de Boer, Graham Feingold, Dean Henze, Quinn T. Kalen, Jan Kazil, Mason Leandro, Ashley Lundry, Ken Moran, Dana A. Naeher, David Noone, Akshar J. Patel, Sergio Pezoa, Ivan PopStefanija, Elizabeth J. Thompson, James Warnecke, and Paquita Zuidema
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 3281–3296, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3281-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-3281-2021, 2021
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This paper describes observations taken from a research aircraft during a field experiment in the western Atlantic Ocean during January and February 2020. The plane made 11 flights, most 8-9 h long, and measured the properties of the atmosphere and ocean with a combination of direct measurements, sensors falling from the plane to profile the atmosphere and ocean, and remote sensing measurements of clouds and the ocean surface.
Christina J. Williamson, Agnieszka Kupc, Andrew Rollins, Jan Kazil, Karl D. Froyd, Eric A. Ray, Daniel M. Murphy, Gregory P. Schill, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea Thompson, Ilann Bourgeois, Thomas B. Ryerson, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, Donald R. Blake, Thao Paul V. Bui, Maximilian Dollner, Bernadett Weinzierl, and Charles A. Brock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9065–9088, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9065-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9065-2021, 2021
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Aerosols in the stratosphere influence climate by scattering and absorbing sunlight and through chemical reactions occurring on the particles’ surfaces. We observed more nucleation mode aerosols (small aerosols, with diameters below 12 nm) in the mid- and high-latitude lowermost stratosphere (8–13 km) in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) than in the Southern Hemisphere. The most likely cause of this is aircraft emissions, which are concentrated in the NH at similar altitudes to our observations.
Tom Dror, J. Michel Flores, Orit Altaratz, Guy Dagan, Zev Levin, Assaf Vardi, and Ilan Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15297–15306, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15297-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15297-2020, 2020
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We used in situ aerosol measurements over the Atlantic, Caribbean, and Pacific to initialize a cloud model and study the impact of aerosol concentration and sizes on warm clouds. We show that high aerosol concentration increases cloud mass and reduces surface rain when giant particles (diameter > 9 µm) are present. The large aerosols changed the timing and magnitude of internal cloud processes and resulted in an enhanced evaporation below cloud base and dramatically reduced surface rain.
Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15079–15099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020, 2020
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Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Agnieszka Kupc, Christina J. Williamson, Anna L. Hodshire, Jan Kazil, Eric Ray, T. Paul Bui, Maximilian Dollner, Karl D. Froyd, Kathryn McKain, Andrew Rollins, Gregory P. Schill, Alexander Thames, Bernadett B. Weinzierl, Jeffrey R. Pierce, and Charles A. Brock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15037–15060, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15037-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15037-2020, 2020
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Tropical upper troposphere over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans is a major source region of new particles. These particles are associated with the outflow from deep convection. We investigate the processes that govern the formation of these particles and their initial growth and show that none of the formation schemes commonly used in global models are consistent with observations. Using newer schemes indicates that organic compounds are likely important as nucleating and initial growth agents.
Reuven H. Heiblum, Lital Pinto, Orit Altaratz, Guy Dagan, and Ilan Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10717–10738, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10717-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10717-2019, 2019
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It is useful to divide a cloud into two regions: core and margin. Three parameters used to define a core are compared: buoyancy (B), relative humidity (RH), and vertical velocity (W). Using theoretical arguments and simulations, we show that during most of a cloud's lifetime, the cores are subsets of one another: Bcore ⊆ RHcore ⊆ Wcore. Moreover, the core–shell cloud model applies to all core definitions. Our findings can serve as a benchmark in the partition the core and margin.
Reuven H. Heiblum, Lital Pinto, Orit Altaratz, Guy Dagan, and Ilan Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10739–10755, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10739-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10739-2019, 2019
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The effects of aerosol concentration on a cloud's partition to core and margin are examined. The main finding from Part I (i.e. Bcore ⊆ RHcore ⊆ Wcore) is seen for all aerosol concentrations. Clouds can produce positive buoyancy due to both saturated updrafts or unsaturated downdrafts; the latter are dependent on low aerosol concentrations. We show that a cloud's mass is mainly dependent on core processes (condensation), while its volume is mainly dependent on margin processes (evaporation).
Franziska Glassmeier, Fabian Hoffmann, Jill S. Johnson, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Ken S. Carslaw, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10191–10203, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10191-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10191-2019, 2019
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The climatic relevance of aerosol–cloud interactions depends on the sensitivity of the radiative effect of clouds to certain cloud properties. We derive the dependence of cloud fraction, cloud albedo, and the relative cloud radiative effect on the number of cloud droplets and on liquid water path from a large set of detailed simulations of stratocumulus clouds.
Carolin Klinger, Graham Feingold, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6295–6313, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6295-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6295-2019, 2019
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The effect of 1-D and 3-D thermal radiation on cloud droplet growth in shallow cumulus clouds is investigated using large eddy simulations with size-resolved cloud microphysics. A two-step approach is used for separating microphysical effects from dynamical feedbacks. In a parcel framework the main effect on rain production arises from recirculating parcels. Large eddy simulations show that radiative effects on dynamics are stronger than on microphysics, as far as rain production is concerned.
Guy Dagan, Ilan Koren, and Orit Altaratz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 6761–6769, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6761-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6761-2018, 2018
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In this paper we distill the problem of aerosol–cloud interactions to an interplay between the system's two characteristic vertical velocities, i.e., the air vertical velocity and the collective droplets fall velocity. We show using theoretical considerations and cloud-resolving models that the relations between the two velocities are extremely sensitive to the cloud field's thermodynamics and microphysical properties.
Maximilian Maahn, Gijs de Boer, Jessie M. Creamean, Graham Feingold, Greg M. McFarquhar, Wei Wu, and Fan Mei
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14709–14726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14709-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14709-2017, 2017
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Liquid-containing clouds are a key component of the Arctic climate system and their radiative properties depend strongly on cloud drop sizes. Here, we investigate how cloud drop sizes are modified in the presence of local emissions from industrial facilities at the North Slope of Alaska using aircraft in situ observations. We show that near local anthropogenic sources, the concentrations of black carbon and condensation nuclei are enhanced and cloud drop sizes are reduced.
Yevgeny Derimian, Marie Choël, Yinon Rudich, Karine Deboudt, Oleg Dubovik, Alexander Laskin, Michel Legrand, Bahaiddin Damiri, Ilan Koren, Florin Unga, Myriam Moreau, Meinrat O. Andreae, and Arnon Karnieli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11331–11353, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11331-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11331-2017, 2017
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We present influence of daily occurrence of the sea breeze flow from the Mediterranean Sea on physicochemical and optical properties of atmospheric aerosol deep inland in the Negev Desert of Israel. Sampled airborne dust was found be internally mixed with sea-salt particles and reacted with anthropogenic pollution, which makes the dust highly hygroscopic and a liquid coating of particles appears. These physicochemical transformations are associated with a change in aerosol radiative properties.
Qian Chen, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, Reuven H. Heiblum, Guy Dagan, and Lital Pinto
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9585–9598, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9585-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9585-2017, 2017
Guy Dagan, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, and Reuven H. Heiblum
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7435–7444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7435-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7435-2017, 2017
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Large eddy simulations with bin microphysics are used to study cloud fields' sensitivity to changes in aerosol loading and the time evolution of this response. We show that the mean field properties change with a non-monotonic trend, with an optimum aerosol concentration for which the field reaches its maximal water mass or rain yield. The evolution of the mean thermodynamic properties is studied and shown to cause the migration of the optimal aerosol concentration toward higher values.
Yaniv Tubul, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, and Reuven H. Heiblum
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2017-121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2017-121, 2017
Revised manuscript not accepted
Chandan Sarangi, Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Vijay P. Kanawade, Ilan Koren, and D. Sivanand Pai
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 5185–5204, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5185-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-5185-2017, 2017
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Aerosol-induced perturbations in cloud systems and rainfall are very uncertain. This study provides observational evidence of a robust positive association between aerosol–cloud–rainfall properties over the Indian summer monsoon region. Observed and modeled aerosol–cloud microphysical changes illustrate that cloud invigoration under a high AOD scenario can explain most of the aerosol-associated changes in cloud fraction, cloud top pressure, and surface rainfall over this region.
Elisa T. Sena, Allison McComiskey, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11301–11318, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11301-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11301-2016, 2016
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A new method for assessing aerosol effects on clouds is proposed. For the first time, 14 years of collocated, coincident ground-based observations have been used to study cloud–aerosol–meteorology–radiation interactions in the USA. For this site, the results indicate that the influence of the aerosol on cloud radiative effect and cloud albedo is weak, and that macroscopic cloud properties play a much larger role in determining the cloud radiative effect compared to aerosol effects.
Eunsil Jung, Bruce A. Albrecht, Graham Feingold, Haflidi H. Jonsson, Patrick Chuang, and Shaunna L. Donaher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8643–8666, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8643-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8643-2016, 2016
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This study discusses the properties and variations of aerosol, cloud, and precipitation associated with shallow marine cumulus clouds observed in the North-Atlantic trades during a field campaign (aircraft measurements), which included the most intense African dust event of 2010 at Barbados. The results provide characteristics of Saharan dust as well as marine shallow cumulus clouds from radar measurements, which can provide a basis for the numerical study.
Jan Kazil, Graham Feingold, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 5811–5839, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5811-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5811-2016, 2016
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Observed and projected trends in large-scale wind speed over the oceans prompt the question: how do marine clouds respond to changes in wind speed? This work presents an investigation of the dynamical response of marine low clouds to different wind speeds over 1 day.
Y. Tubul, I. Koren, and O. Altaratz
Earth Syst. Dynam., 6, 781–788, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-781-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-6-781-2015, 2015
Y. Ben Ami, O. Altaratz, Y. Yair, and I. Koren
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 2449–2459, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2449-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-2449-2015, 2015
A. Solomon, G. Feingold, and M. D. Shupe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10631–10643, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10631-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10631-2015, 2015
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The maintenance of cloud ice production in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus is investigated in large eddy simulations that include a prognostic ice nuclei (IN) formulation and a diurnal cycle. It is demonstrated that IN recycling through subcloud sublimation prolongs ice production. Competing feedbacks between dynamical mixing and recycling are found to slow the rate of ice lost. The results of this study have important implications for the maintenance of phase partitioning in Arctic clouds.
S. Fuzzi, U. Baltensperger, K. Carslaw, S. Decesari, H. Denier van der Gon, M. C. Facchini, D. Fowler, I. Koren, B. Langford, U. Lohmann, E. Nemitz, S. Pandis, I. Riipinen, Y. Rudich, M. Schaap, J. G. Slowik, D. V. Spracklen, E. Vignati, M. Wild, M. Williams, and S. Gilardoni
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 8217–8299, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8217-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8217-2015, 2015
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Particulate matter (PM) constitutes one of the most challenging problems both for air quality and climate change policies. This paper reviews the most recent scientific results on the issue and the policy needs that have driven much of the increase in monitoring and mechanistic research over the last 2 decades. The synthesis reveals many new processes and developments in the science underpinning climate-PM interactions and the effects of PM on human health and the environment.
M. D. Fielding, J. C. Chiu, R. J. Hogan, G. Feingold, E. Eloranta, E. J. O'Connor, and M. P. Cadeddu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2663–2683, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2663-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2663-2015, 2015
G. Dagan, I. Koren, and O. Altaratz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 2749–2760, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2749-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2749-2015, 2015
E. Tas, A. Teller, O. Altaratz, D. Axisa, R. Bruintjes, Z. Levin, and I. Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 2009–2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2009-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2009-2015, 2015
T. Yamaguchi and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 1237–1251, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1237-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-1237-2015, 2015
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Precipitation is necessary but insufficient for transformation to open cells from closed cells. The transformation to open cells occurs for sufficiently small droplet number concentration and/or large rain area. Both of these factors appear to be of similar importance. The distance selects the resulting state for rain regions that alone are too weak to initiate the transformation. The phase trajectory of the variance and mean cloud field properties follow one path.
G. Snider, C. L. Weagle, R. V. Martin, A. van Donkelaar, K. Conrad, D. Cunningham, C. Gordon, M. Zwicker, C. Akoshile, P. Artaxo, N. X. Anh, J. Brook, J. Dong, R. M. Garland, R. Greenwald, D. Griffith, K. He, B. N. Holben, R. Kahn, I. Koren, N. Lagrosas, P. Lestari, Z. Ma, J. Vanderlei Martins, E. J. Quel, Y. Rudich, A. Salam, S. N. Tripathi, C. Yu, Q. Zhang, Y. Zhang, M. Brauer, A. Cohen, M. D. Gibson, and Y. Liu
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 505–521, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-505-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-505-2015, 2015
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We have initiated a global network of ground-level monitoring stations to measure concentrations of fine aerosols in urban environments. Our findings include major ions species, total mass, and total scatter at three wavelengths. Results will be used to further evaluate and enhance satellite remote sensing estimates.
Z. J. Lebo and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11817–11831, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11817-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11817-2014, 2014
E. Hirsch, I. Koren, Z. Levin, O. Altaratz, and E. Agassi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9001–9012, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9001-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9001-2014, 2014
A. K. Mishra, K. Klingmueller, E. Fredj, J. Lelieveld, Y. Rudich, and I. Koren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 7213–7231, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7213-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-7213-2014, 2014
M. K. Witte, P. Y. Chuang, and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6729–6738, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6729-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6729-2014, 2014
R. H. Heiblum, I. Koren, and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6063–6074, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6063-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6063-2014, 2014
J. Kazil, G. Feingold, H. Wang, and T. Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 61–79, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-61-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-61-2014, 2014
G. Feingold and I. Koren
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 20, 1011–1021, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-20-1011-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-20-1011-2013, 2013
E. Hirsch, I. Koren, O. Altaratz, Z. Levin, and E. Agassi
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-13-28729-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-13-28729-2013, 2013
Revised manuscript not accepted
S.-S. Lee and G. Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6713–6726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6713-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6713-2013, 2013
H. Wan, P. J. Rasch, K. Zhang, J. Kazil, and L. R. Leung
Geosci. Model Dev., 6, 861–874, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-6-861-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-6-861-2013, 2013
J. L. Petters, H. Jiang, G. Feingold, D. L. Rossiter, D. Khelif, L. C. Sloan, and P. Y. Chuang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2507–2529, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2507-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2507-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Ambient and intrinsic dependencies of evolving ice-phase particles within a decaying winter storm during IMPACTS
High-resolution modeling of early contrail evolution from hydrogen-powered aircraft
Accelerated impact of airborne glaciogenic seeding of stratiform clouds by turbulence
Failed cyclogenesis of a mesoscale convective system near Cabo Verde: the role of the Saharan trade wind layer among other inhibiting factors observed during the CADDIWA field campaign
Sensitivities of simulated mixed-phase Arctic multilayer clouds to primary and secondary ice processes
Assessing glaciogenic seeding impacts in Australia's Snowy Mountains: an ensemble modeling approach
How the representation of microphysical processes affects tropical condensate in the global storm-resolving model ICON
Magnitude and timescale of liquid water path adjustments to cloud droplet number concentration perturbations for nocturnal non-precipitating marine stratocumulus
Cold pools mediate mesoscale adjustments of trade-cumulus fields to changes in cloud droplet number concentration
Numerical case study of the aerosol–cloud interactions in warm boundary layer clouds over the eastern North Atlantic with an interactive chemistry module
Influence of temperature and humidity on contrail formation regions in the general circulation model EMAC: a spring case study
On the impact of thunder on cloud ice crystals and droplets
Counteracting influences of gravitational settling modulate aerosol impacts on cloud-base-lowering fog characteristics
The critical number and size of precipitation embryos to accelerate warm rain initiation
Impact on the stratocumulus-to-cumulus transition of the interaction of cloud microphysics and macrophysics with large-scale circulation
Technical note: Phase space depiction of cloud condensation nuclei activation and cloud droplet diffusional growth
Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation – Part 2: Simulation of MOSAiC 2019–2020 cases
Constraining aerosol–cloud adjustments by uniting surface observations with a perturbed parameter ensemble
Investigating ice formation pathways using a novel two-moment multi-class cloud microphysics scheme
Exploiting airborne far-infrared measurements to optimise an ice cloud retrieval
Microphysics regimes due to haze–cloud interactions: cloud oscillation and cloud collapse
Microphysical fingerprints in anvil cloud albedo
Influence of Secondary Ice Production on cloud and rain properties: Analysis of the HYMEX IOP7a Heavy Precipitation Event
Factors Causing Stratocumulus to Deviate from Subtropical High Variability on Seasonal to Interannual Timescales
The influence of Amazonian anthropogenic emissions on new particle formation, aerosol, cloud and surface rain
Impact of secondary ice production on thunderstorm electrification under different aerosol conditions
Tropical cirrus evolution in a km-scale model with improved ice microphysics
Model analysis of biases in the satellite-diagnosed aerosol effect on the cloud liquid water path
Impacts of aerosol-radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions on a short-term heavy rainfall event – A case study in the Guanzhong Basin, China
Evaluation of biases in mid-to-high-latitude surface snowfall and cloud phase in ERA5 and CMIP6 using satellite observations
Dynamical imprints on precipitation cluster statistics across a hierarchy of high-resolution simulations
Ice formation processes key in determining WCB outflow cirrus properties
Role of a key microphysical factor in mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with aerosols
Investigating the impact of subgrid-scale aerosol-cloud interaction on mesoscale meteorology prediction
Different responses of cold-air outbreak clouds to aerosol and ice production depending on cloud temperature
Identifying Synoptic Controls on Boundary Layer Thermodynamic and Cloud Properties in a Regional Forecast Model
Correction of ERA5 temperature and relative humidity biases by bivariate quantile mapping for contrail formation analysis
Can pollen affect precipitation?
Potential impacts of marine fuel regulations on an Arctic stratocumulus case and its radiative response
The subtleties of three-dimensional radiative effects in contrails and cirrus clouds
The impact of the mesh size and microphysics scheme on the representation of mid-level clouds in the ICON model in hilly and complex terrain
The role of ascent timescales for warm conveyor belt (WCB) moisture transport into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS)
On the Processes Determining the Slope of Cloud-Water Adjustments in Non-Precipitating Stratocumulus
Analysis of raindrop size distribution from the double moment cloud microphysics scheme for monsoon over a tropical station
High sensitivity of simulated fog properties to parameterized aerosol activation in case studies from ParisFog
Adiabatic and radiative cooling are both important causes of aerosol activation in simulated fog events in Europe
Estimating the concentration of silver iodide needed to detect unambiguous signatures of glaciogenic cloud seeding
Ice-nucleating particle concentration impacts cloud properties over Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, in COSMO-CLM2
Numerical simulation of aerosol concentration effects on cloud droplet size spectrum evolutions of warm stratiform clouds in Jiangxi, China
The impact of aerosol on cloud water: a heuristic perspective
Andrew DeLaFrance, Lynn A. McMurdie, Angela K. Rowe, and Andrew J. Heymsfield
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8087–8106, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8087-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8087-2025, 2025
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Numerical modeling simulations are used to investigate ice crystal growth and decay processes within a banded region of enhanced precipitation rates during a prominent winter storm. We identify robust primary ice growth in the upper portion of the cloud but decay exceeding 70 % during fallout through a subsaturated layer. The ice fall characteristics and decay rate are sensitive to the ambient cloud properties, which has implications for radar-based measurements and precipitation accumulations.
Annemarie Lottermoser and Simon Unterstrasser
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7903–7924, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7903-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7903-2025, 2025
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Contrail cirrus significantly contributes to aviation's overall climate impact. As hydrogen combustion and fuel cell use are emerging technologies for aircraft propulsion, we simulated individual contrails from hydrogen propulsion during the first 6 min after exhaust emission, termed the vortex phase. The ice crystal loss during that stage is crucial, as the number of ice crystals has a large impact on the further evolution of contrails into contrail cirrus and their radiative forcing.
Meilian Chen, Xiaoqin Jing, Jiaojiao Li, Jing Yang, Xiaobo Dong, Bart Geerts, Yan Yin, Baojun Chen, Lulin Xue, Mengyu Huang, Ping Tian, and Shaofeng Hua
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7581–7596, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7581-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7581-2025, 2025
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Several recent studies have reported complete cloud glaciation induced by airborne-based glaciogenic cloud seeding over plains. Since turbulence is an important factor to maintain clouds in a mixed phase, it is hypothesized that turbulence may have an impact on the seeding effect. This hypothesis is evident in the present study, which shows that turbulence can accelerate the impact of airborne glaciogenic seeding of stratiform clouds.
Guillaume Feger, Jean-Pierre Chaboureau, Thibaut Dauhut, Julien Delanoë, and Pierre Coutris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7447–7465, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7447-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7447-2025, 2025
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Saharan air at the trade wind layer, cold pools, and dry upper troposphere has these three main factors inhibiting the cyclogenesis of the Pierre Henri mesoscale convective system. The findings were obtained through observations made during two flights of the Clouds-Atmospheric Dynamics-Dust Interactions in West Africa (CADDIWA) campaign and a convection-permitting simulation run with the Meso-NH model. They provide new insights into the complex dynamics of cyclogenesis in the Cabo Verde region and challenge the existing model of the Saharan Air Layer (SAL).
Gabriella Wallentin, Annika Oertel, Luisa Ickes, Peggy Achtert, Matthias Tesche, and Corinna Hoose
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6607–6631, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6607-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6607-2025, 2025
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Multilayer clouds are common in the Arctic but remain underrepresented. We use an atmospheric model to simulate multilayer cloud cases from the Arctic expedition MOSAiC 2019/2020. We find that it is complex to accurately model these cloud layers due to the lack of correct temperature profiles. The model also struggles to capture the observed cloud phase and the relative concentration of cloud droplets and cloud ice. We constrain our model to measured aerosols to mitigate this issue.
Sisi Chen, Lulin Xue, Sarah A. Tessendorf, Thomas Chubb, Andrew Peace, Suzanne Kenyon, Johanna Speirs, Jamie Wolff, and Bill Petzke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6703–6724, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6703-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6703-2025, 2025
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This study aims to investigate how cloud seeding affects snowfall in Australia's Snowy Mountains. By running simulations with different setups, we found that seeding impact varies greatly with weather conditions. Seeding increased snow in stable weather but sometimes reduced it in stormy weather. This helps us to better understand when seeding works best to boost water supplies.
Ann Kristin Naumann, Monika Esch, and Bjorn Stevens
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6429–6444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6429-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6429-2025, 2025
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This study explores how uncertainties in the representation of microphysical processes affect the tropical condensate distribution in the global storm-resolving model ICON. The results point to the importance of the fall speed of hydrometeor particles and to a simple relationship: the faster a condensate falls, the less there is of it. Implications for the energy balance and precipitation properties are discussed.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Prasanth Prabhakaran, Fabian Hoffmann, Jan Kazil, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6141–6159, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6141-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6141-2025, 2025
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Injecting sea salt aerosols into marine stratiform clouds can distribute the cloud water over more droplets in smaller sizes. This process is expected to make the clouds brighter, allowing them to reflect more sunlight back to space. However, it may also cause the clouds to lose water over time, reducing their ability to reflect sunlight. We use a computer model to show that the loss of cloud water occurs relatively quickly and does not completely offset the initial brightening.
Pouriya Alinaghi, Fredrik Jansson, Daniel A. Blázquez, and Franziska Glassmeier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6121–6139, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6121-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6121-2025, 2025
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Shallow clouds in the trades are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. These clouds organize into striking mesoscale patterns that are exactly what climate models lack. This study explores the origin of such patterns and investigates how variations in microscale properties control them. The importance of microscale effects is compared to that of large-scale forcing on the mesoscale organization of trade-cumulus fields.
Hsiang-He Lee, Xue Zheng, Shaoyue Qiu, and Yuan Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6069–6091, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6069-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6069-2025, 2025
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The study investigates how aerosol–cloud interactions affect warm boundary layer stratiform clouds over the eastern North Atlantic. High-resolution weather model simulations reveal that non-rain clouds at the edge of cloud systems are prone to evaporation, leading to an aerosol drying effect and a transition of aerosols back to the accumulation mode for future activation. The study shows that this dynamic behavior is often not adequately represented in most previous prescribed-aerosol simulations.
Patrick Peter, Sigrun Matthes, Christine Frömming, Patrick Jöckel, Luca Bugliaro, Andreas Giez, Martina Krämer, and Volker Grewe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5911–5934, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5911-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5911-2025, 2025
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Our study examines how well the global climate model EMAC (ECHAM/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry) predicts contrail formation by analysing temperature and humidity – two key factors for contrail development and persistence. The model underestimates temperature, leading to an overprediction of contrail formation and larger ice-supersaturated regions. Adjusting the model improves temperature accuracy but adds uncertainties. Better predictions of contrail formation areas can help optimise flight tracks to reduce aviation's climate effect.
Konstantinos Kourtidis, Stavros Stathopoulos, and Vassilis Amiridis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5935–5946, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5935-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5935-2025, 2025
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The sound of thunder induces mechanical effects on cloud droplets and ice particles, causing changes in their size distribution. A shock wave near the lightning channel causes extensive shattering of cloud particles. At a distance, the audio wave will cause agglomeration of particles. So, thunder may influence the rain generation process and the radiative properties of clouds. As global warming may influence the occurrence rate of lightning, a climate feedback may be induced by these mechanisms.
Nathan H. Pope and Adele L. Igel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5433–5444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5433-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5433-2025, 2025
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We used an atmospheric model that simulates a single column to study the sensitivity of marine fog formed through the lowering of the base of a stratus cloud to meteorology and aerosols. We found that higher aerosol concentration reduces the likelihood and duration of fog but leads to denser fog. This overall trend was caused by multiple physical mechanisms depending on conditions.
Jung-Sub Lim, Yign Noh, Hyunho Lee, and Fabian Hoffmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5313–5329, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5313-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5313-2025, 2025
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Rain formation in warm clouds begins when small droplets collide, but this process can be slow without larger droplets. We used simulations to explore the role of bigger droplets, known as precipitation embryos, in triggering rain. We found that they speed up rain only when their size and number exceed a critical threshold. This threshold becomes larger when collisions are naturally efficient, such as in clouds with broad droplet size distributions or strong turbulence.
Je-Yun Chun, Robert Wood, Peter N. Blossey, and Sarah J. Doherty
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5251–5271, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5251-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5251-2025, 2025
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This study explores how aerosols affect clouds transitioning from stratocumulus to cumulus along trade winds under varying atmospheric conditions. We found that aerosols typically reduce precipitation and raise cloud height, but their impact changes when subsidence changes by aerosol enhancement are considered. Our findings indicate that the cooling effect of aerosols might be overestimated if these atmospheric changes are not accounted for.
Wojciech W. Grabowski and Hanna Pawlowska
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5273–5285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5273-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5273-2025, 2025
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A simple diagram to depict cloud droplets' formation via the activation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) as well as their subsequent growth and evaporation is presented.
Albert Ansmann, Cristofer Jimenez, Daniel A. Knopf, Johanna Roschke, Johannes Bühl, Kevin Ohneiser, and Ronny Engelmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4867–4884, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4867-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4867-2025, 2025
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In this study, we focus on the potential impact of wildfire smoke on cirrus formation. Aerosol and cirrus observations with lidar and radar during the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition, presented in the companion paper (Ansmann et al., 2025), are closely linked to comprehensive modeling of ice nucleation in cirrus evolution processes, presented in this article. A clear impact of wildfire smoke on cirrus formation was found.
August Mikkelsen, Daniel T. McCoy, Trude Eidhammer, Andrew Gettelman, Ci Song, Hamish Gordon, and Isabel L. McCoy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4547–4570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4547-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4547-2025, 2025
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Whether increased aerosol increases or decreases liquid cloud mass has been a longstanding question. Observed correlations suggest that aerosols thin liquid cloud, but we are able to show that observations were consistent with an increase in liquid cloud in response to aerosols by leveraging a model where causality could be traced.
Tim Lüttmer, Peter Spichtinger, and Axel Seifert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4505–4529, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4505-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4505-2025, 2025
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We investigate ice formation pathways in idealized convective clouds using a novel microphysics scheme that distinguishes between five ice classes each with their own unique formation mechanism. Ice crystals from rime splintering form the lowermost layer of ice crystals around the updraft core. The majority of ice crystals in the anvil of the convective cloud stems from frozen droplets. Ice stemming from homogeneous and deposition nucleation was only relevant in the overshoot.
Sanjeevani Panditharatne, Helen Brindley, Caroline Cox, Rui Song, Richard Siddans, Richard Bantges, Jonathan Murray, Stuart Fox, and Cathryn Fox
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-647, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-647, 2025
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Upwelling radiation with wavelengths between 15 and 100 microns is theorised to be highly sensitive to the properties of ice clouds, particularly the shape of the ice crystals. We exploit this sensitivity and perform the first retrieval of ice cloud properties using these wavelengths from an observation taken on an aircraft and evaluate it against measurements of the cloud’s properties.
Fan Yang, Hamed Fahandezh Sadi, Raymond A. Shaw, Fabian Hoffmann, Pei Hou, Aaron Wang, and Mikhail Ovchinnikov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3785–3806, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3785-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3785-2025, 2025
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Large-eddy simulations of a convection cloud chamber show two new microphysics regimes, cloud oscillation and cloud collapse, due to haze–cloud interactions. Our results suggest that haze particles and their interactions with cloud droplets should be considered especially in polluted conditions. To properly simulate haze–cloud interactions, we need to resolve droplet activation and deactivation processes, instead of using Twomey-type activation parameterization.
Declan L. Finney, Alan M. Blyth, Paul R. Field, Martin I. Daily, Benjamin J. Murray, Mengyu Sun, Paul J. Connolly, Zhiqiang Cui, and Steven Böing
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1227, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1227, 2025
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We present observation-informed modelling from the Deep Convective Microphysics Experiment to study how environmental conditions and cloud processes affect anvil cloud albedo and radiation. Aerosols influencing cloud droplets or influencing ice formation yield varying radiative effects. We introduce fingerprint metrics to discern these effects. Using detailed observations and modelling, we offer insights into high cloud radiative effects and feedbacks.
Pierre Grzegorczyk, Wolfram Wobrock, Aymeric Dziduch, and Céline Planche
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-819, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-819, 2025
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The impact of secondary ice production (SIP) on a HYMEX intense precipitation event is investigated using 3D bin microphysics. Including SIP improves agreement with in situ aircraft observations (ice crystal number concentration and supercooled drop number fraction), generates small ice crystals and redistributes condensed water mass toward smaller particle sizes. As these crystals melt, the liquid precipitation flux decreases, reducing total precipitation by 8 % and heavy rainfall by 20 %.
Hairu Ding, Bjorn Stevens, and Hauke Schmidt
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-876, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-876, 2025
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This study examines the physical link between subtropical highs and stratocumulus variability. Using reanalysis data, we test two proposed pathways—one at the surface and one in the free troposphere—but find that neither is a dominant mechanism for stratocumulus variability on seasonal and interannual timescales. These results challenge the assumed influence of subtropical highs on stratocumulus and highlight the need for further research into lower tropospheric stability dynamics.
Xuemei Wang, Kenneth S. Carslaw, Daniel P. Grosvenor, and Hamish Gordon
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-132, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-132, 2025
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Anthropogenic emissions can influence aerosol particle number concentrations via new particle formation. Our model simulations predict around 10 % increase of the particle and cloud droplet number concentrations when doubling the emissions in the Manaus region in the Amazonian wet season. However, the corresponding changes in cloud water and rain mass are around 4 %. Such weak response implied that this convective environment is not sensitive to the localised anthropogenic emission changes here.
Shiye Huang, Jing Yang, Jiaojiao Li, Qian Chen, Qilin Zhang, and Fengxia Guo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1831–1850, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1831-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1831-2025, 2025
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Aerosol and secondary ice production are both vital to charge separation in thunderstorms, but the relative importance of different SIP processes to cloud electrification under different aerosol conditions is not well understood. In this study, we show in a clean environment, the shattering of freezing drops has the greatest effect on the charging rate, while in a polluted environment, both rime splintering and the shattering of freezing drops have a significant effect on cloud electrification.
Blaž Gasparini, Rachel Atlas, Aiko Voigt, Martina Krämer, and Peter N. Blossey
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-203, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-203, 2025
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Tropical cirrus clouds, especially their evolution, are poorly understood, contributing to uncertainty in climate projections. We address this by using novel tracers in a cloud-resolving model to track the life cycle of cirrus clouds, providing insights into cloud formation, ice crystal evolution, and radiative effects. We also improve the model's cloud microphysics with a simple, computationally efficient approach that can be applied to other models.
Harri Kokkola, Juha Tonttila, Silvia M. Calderón, Sami Romakkaniemi, Antti Lipponen, Aapo Peräkorpi, Tero Mielonen, Edward Gryspeerdt, Timo Henrik Virtanen, Pekka Kolmonen, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1533–1543, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1533-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1533-2025, 2025
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Understanding how atmospheric aerosols affect clouds is a scientific challenge. One question is how aerosols affects the amount of cloud water. We used a cloud-scale model to study these effects on marine clouds. The study showed that variations in cloud properties and instrument noise can cause bias in satellite-derived cloud water content. However, our results suggest that for similar weather conditions with well-defined aerosol concentrations, satellite data can reliably track these effects.
Naifang Bei, Bo Xiao, Ruonan Wang, Yuning Yang, Lang Liu, Yongming Han, and Guohui Li
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3558, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3558, 2025
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This study uses a cloud-resolving model to examine how aerosols influence a mesoscale convective system (MCS) in central China via aerosol-radiation (ARIs) and aerosol-cloud interactions (ACIs). Without ARIs, added aerosols don’t significantly affect precipitation due to cloud competition for moisture. ARIs can stabilize or enhance convection. High aerosol levels lead to a combined ARI and ACI effect that greatly reduces precipitation.
Franziska Hellmuth, Tim Carlsen, Anne Sophie Daloz, Robert Oscar David, Haochi Che, and Trude Storelvmo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1353–1383, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1353-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1353-2025, 2025
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This article compares the occurrence of supercooled liquid-containing clouds (sLCCs) and their link to surface snowfall in CloudSat–CALIPSO, ERA5, and the CMIP6 models. Significant discrepancies were found, with ERA5 and CMIP6 consistently overestimating sLCC and snowfall frequency. This bias is likely due to cloud microphysics parameterization. This conclusion has implications for accurately representing cloud phase and snowfall in future climate projections.
Claudia Christine Stephan and Bjorn Stevens
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1209–1226, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1209-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1209-2025, 2025
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Tropical precipitation cluster area and intensity distributions follow power laws, but the physical processes responsible for this behavior remain unknown. We analyze global simulations that realistically represent precipitation processes. We consider Earth-like planets as well as virtual planets to realize different types of large-scale dynamics. Our finding is that power laws in Earth’s precipitation cluster statistics stem from the robust power laws in Earth’s atmospheric wind field.
Tim Lüttmer, Annette Miltenberger, and Peter Spichtinger
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-185, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-185, 2025
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We investigate ice formation pathways in a warm conveyor belt case study. We employ a multi-phase microphysics scheme that distinguishes between ice from different nucleation processes. Ice crystals in the cirrus outflow mostly stem from in-situ formation. Hence they were formed directly from the vapor phase. Sedimentational redistribution modulates cirrus properties and leads to a disagreement between cirrus origin classifications based on thermodynamic history and nucleation processes.
Seoung Soo Lee, Chang Hoon Jung, Jinho Choi, Young Jun Yoon, Junshik Um, Youtong Zheng, Jianping Guo, Manguttathil G. Manoj, Sang-Keun Song, and Kyung-Ja Ha
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 705–726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-705-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-705-2025, 2025
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This study attempts to test a general factor that explains differences in the properties of different mixed-phase clouds using a modeling tool. Although this attempt is not to identify a factor that can perfectly explain and represent the properties of different mixed-phase clouds, we believe that this attempt acts as a valuable stepping stone towards a more complete, general way of using climate models to better predict climate change.
Wenjie Zhang, Hong Wang, Xiaoye Zhang, Yue Peng, Zhaodong Liu, Deying Wang, Da Zhang, Chen Han, Yang Zhao, Junting Zhong, Wenxing Jia, Huiqiong Ning, and Huizheng Che
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3677, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3677, 2025
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We implement a real-time subgrid-scale aerosol-cloud interaction (ACI) mechanism in a mesoscale atmospheric chemistry system and find that subgrid-scale ACI can improve meteorological factors predictions. This study demonstrates the importance of real-time subgrid-scale ACI to weather forecast and the necessity of multiscale ACI studies.
Xinyi Huang, Paul R. Field, Benjamin J. Murray, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Floortje van den Heuvel, and Kenneth S. Carslaw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4070, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4070, 2025
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Cold-air outbreak (CAO) clouds play a vital role in climate prediction. This study explores the responses of CAO clouds to aerosols and ice production under different environmental conditions. We found that CAO cloud responses vary with cloud temperature and are strongly controlled by the liquid-ice partitioning in these clouds, suggesting the importance of good representations of cloud microphysics properties to predict the behaviours of CAO clouds in a warming climate.
Jordan Eissner, David Mechem, Yi Jin, Virendra Ghate, and James Booth
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3438, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3438, 2025
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Low-level clouds have important radiative feedbacks and can occur in a range of meteorological conditions, yet our knowledge and prediction of them are insufficient. We evaluate model forecasts of low-level cloud properties across a cold front and the associated environments that they form in. The model represents the meteorological conditions well and produces broken clouds behind the cold front in areas of strong surface forcing, large stability, and large-scale subsiding motion.
Kevin Wolf, Nicolas Bellouin, Olivier Boucher, Susanne Rohs, and Yun Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 157–181, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-157-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-157-2025, 2025
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ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis and airborne in situ observations from IAGOS are compared in terms of the representation of the contrail formation potential and the presence of supersaturation. Differences are traced back to biases in ERA5 relative humidity fields. Those biases are addressed by applying a quantile mapping technique that significantly improved contrail estimation based on post-processed ERA5 data.
Marje Prank, Juha Tonttila, Xiaoxia Shang, Sami Romakkaniemi, and Tomi Raatikainen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 183–197, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-183-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-183-2025, 2025
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Large primary bioparticles such as pollen can be abundant in the atmosphere. In humid conditions pollen can rupture and release a large number of fine sub-pollen particles (SPPs). The paper investigates what kind of birch pollen concentrations are needed for the pollen and SPPs to start playing a noticeable role in cloud processes and alter precipitation formation. In the studied cases only the largest observed pollen concentrations were able to noticeably alter the precipitation formation.
Luís Filipe Escusa dos Santos, Hannah C. Frostenberg, Alejandro Baró Pérez, Annica M. L. Ekman, Luisa Ickes, and Erik S. Thomson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 119–142, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-119-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-119-2025, 2025
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The Arctic is experiencing enhanced surface warming. The observed decline in Arctic sea-ice extent is projected to lead to an increase in Arctic shipping activity, which may lead to further climatic feedbacks. Using an atmospheric model and results from marine engine experiments that focused on fuel sulfur content reduction and exhaust wet scrubbing, we investigate how ship exhaust particles influence the properties of Arctic clouds. Implications for radiative surface processes are discussed.
Julie Carles, Nicolas Bellouin, Najda Villefranque, and Jean-Louis Dufresne
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3642, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3642, 2025
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Cirrus and contrails affect Earth’s energy balance with a lot of remaining uncertainty. The balance between solar and terrestrial radiation is delicate to calculate, and factors as cloud optical depth, shape, Sun position are crucial to estimate the effect of those clouds on radiation. Also, often neglected three dimensional paths of radiation, or 3D effects, may be important to account for at climatic scale.
Nadja Omanovic, Brigitta Goger, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14145–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14145-2024, 2024
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We evaluated the numerical weather model ICON in two horizontal resolutions with two bulk microphysics schemes over hilly and complex terrain in Switzerland and Austria, respectively. We focused on the model's ability to simulate mid-level clouds in summer and winter. By combining observational data from two different field campaigns, we show that an increase in the horizontal resolution and a more advanced cloud microphysics scheme is strongly beneficial for cloud representation.
Cornelis Schwenk and Annette Miltenberger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14073–14099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14073-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14073-2024, 2024
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Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) transport moisture into the upper atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas. This transport is not well understood, and the role of rapidly rising air is unclear. We simulate a WCB and look at fast- and slow-rising air to see how moisture is (differently) transported. We find that for fast-ascending air more ice particles reach higher into the atmosphere and that frozen cloud particles are removed differently than during slow ascent, which has more water vapour.
Fabian Hoffmann, Yao-Sheng Chen, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3893, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3893, 2024
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Clouds reflect a substantial portion of the incoming solar radiation back into space. This capacity is determined by the number of cloud droplets, which in turn is influenced by the number of aerosol particles, forming the basis for aerosol-cloud-climate interactions. In this study, we use a simple mixed-layer approach to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water in non-precipitating stratocumulus.
Kadavathu Sreekumar Apsara, Jayakumar Aravindakshan, Anurose Theethai Jacob, Saji Mohandas, Paul Field, Hamish Gordan, Thara Prabhakaran, Mahen Konwar, and Vijapurap Srinivasa Prasad
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3538, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3538, 2024
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Science has made significant strides in weather prediction, especially for intense tropical rainfall that can lead to floods and landslides. Our study aims to improve monsoon rainfall forecasts by analyzing raindrop sizes. Using a new approach to model raindrop growth, we achieved a more accurate depiction of large rainfall events. These improvements can be generalized to enhance early warning systems, offering reliable predictions that help reduce risks from severe tropical weather events.
Pratapaditya Ghosh, Ian Boutle, Paul Field, Adrian Hill, Anthony Jones, Marie Mazoyer, Katherine J. Evans, Salil Mahajan, Hyun-Gyu Kang, Min Xu, Wei Zhang, Noah Asch, and Hamish Gordon
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3376, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3376, 2024
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We study aerosol-fog interactions near Paris using a weather and climate model with high spatial resolution. We show that our model can simulate fog lifecycle effectively. We find that the fog droplet number concentrations, the amount of liquid water in the fog, and the vertical structure of the fog are highly sensitive to the parameterization that simulates droplet formation and growth. The changes we propose could improve fog forecasts significantly without increasing computational costs.
Pratapaditya Ghosh, Ian Boutle, Paul Field, Adrian Hill, Marie Mazoyer, Katherine J. Evans, Salil Mahajan, Hyun-Gyu Kang, Min Xu, Wei Zhang, and Hamish Gordon
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3397, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3397, 2024
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We study the lifecycle of fog events in Europe using a weather and climate model. By incorporating droplet formation and growth driven by radiative cooling, our model better simulates the total liquid water in foggy atmospheric columns. We show that both adiabatic and radiative cooling play significant, often equally important roles in driving droplet formation and growth. We discuss strategies to address droplet number overpredictions, by improving model physics and addressing model artifacts.
Jing Yang, Jiaojiao Li, Meilian Chen, Xiaoqin Jing, Yan Yin, Bart Geerts, Zhien Wang, Yubao Liu, Baojun Chen, Shaofeng Hua, Hao Hu, Xiaobo Dong, Ping Tian, Qian Chen, and Yang Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13833–13848, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13833-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13833-2024, 2024
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Detecting unambiguous signatures is vital for examining cloud-seeding impacts, but often, seeding signatures are immersed in natural variability. In this study, reflectivity changes induced by glaciogenic seeding using different AgI concentrations are investigated under various conditions, and a method is developed to estimate the AgI concentration needed to detect unambiguous seeding signatures. The results aid in operational seeding-based decision-making regarding the amount of AgI dispersed.
Florian Sauerland, Niels Souverijns, Anna Possner, Heike Wex, Preben Van Overmeiren, Alexander Mangold, Kwinten Van Weverberg, and Nicole van Lipzig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13751–13768, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13751-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13751-2024, 2024
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We use a regional climate model, COSMO-CLM², enhanced with a module resolving aerosol processes, to study Antarctic clouds. We prescribe different concentrations of ice-nucleating particles to our model to assess how these clouds respond to concentration changes, validating results with cloud and aerosol observations from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station. Our results show that aerosol–cloud interactions vary with temperature, providing valuable insights into Antarctic cloud dynamics.
Yi Li, Xiaoli Liu, and Hengjia Cai
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13525–13540, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13525-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13525-2024, 2024
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The influence of different aerosol modes on cloud processes remains controversial. We modified the aerosol spectra and concentrations to simulate a warm stratiform cloud process in Jiangxi, China, using the WRF-SBM scheme. Research shows that different aerosol spectra have diverse effects on cloud droplet spectra, cloud development, and the correlation between dispersion (ε) and cloud physics quantities. Compared to cloud droplet concentration, ε is more sensitive to the volume radius.
Fabian Hoffmann, Franziska Glassmeier, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13403–13412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, 2024
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Clouds constitute a major cooling influence on Earth's climate system by reflecting a large fraction of the incident solar radiation back to space. This ability is controlled by the number of cloud droplets, which is governed by the number of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, laying the foundation for so-called aerosol–cloud–climate interactions. In this study, a simple model to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water is developed and applied.
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Short summary
Most research on the relationship between aerosol and closed/open cell transitions tends to focus on the closed to open transition. Here we address the two-way transition between closed and open cellular states using a cloud resolving model. We find inherent asymmetry in the transitions and explain the source of the asymmetry. Results are supported by a dynamical system analogue to the full system.
Most research on the relationship between aerosol and closed/open cell transitions tends to...
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