Articles | Volume 16, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1303-2016
© Author(s) 2016. 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-16-1303-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
05 Feb 2016
Research article |
| 05 Feb 2016
Observed high-altitude warming and snow cover retreat over Tibet and the Himalayas enhanced by black carbon aerosols
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder,
CO, USA
V. Ramanathan
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of
California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
W. M. Washington
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder,
CO, USA
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There is still debate over whether the total aerosols enhance or weaken the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). This could be related to both the complicated nature of aerosol chemical compositions and ocean responses to aerosols. Our results show that there is a clear distinction between fast and slow responses of the EASM to scattering and absorbing aerosols, and the slow response due to aerosol-induced change in sea surface temperature plays an important role in driving the change of the EASM.
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Chaman Gul, Shichang Kang, Siva Praveen Puppala, Xiaokang Wu, Cenlin He, Yangyang Xu, Inka Koch, Sher Muhammad, Rajesh Kumar, and Getachew Dubache
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This work aims to understand concentrations, spatial variability, and potential source regions of light-absorbing impurities (black carbon aerosols, dust particles, and organic carbon) in the surface snow of central and western Himalayan glaciers and their impact on snow albedo and radiative forcing.
Chenrui Diao, Yangyang Xu, and Shang-Ping Xie
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Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 3773–3793, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3773-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3773-2019, 2019
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Huopo Chen, Huijun Wang, Jianqi Sun, Yangyang Xu, and Zhicong Yin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 233–243, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-233-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-233-2019, 2019
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Our results show that the anthropogenic air pollution over eastern China will increase considerably at the end of 21st century, even though we keep the aerosol emission constant throughout the experiment. Furthermore, estimation shows that the effect of climate change induced by the GHG warming can account for 11%–28% of the changes of anthropogenic air pollution days over this region.
Benjamin M. Sanderson, Yangyang Xu, Claudia Tebaldi, Michael Wehner, Brian O'Neill, Alexandra Jahn, Angeline G. Pendergrass, Flavio Lehner, Warren G. Strand, Lei Lin, Reto Knutti, and Jean Francois Lamarque
Earth Syst. Dynam., 8, 827–847, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-827-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-827-2017, 2017
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Zhili Wang, Lei Lin, Meilin Yang, Yangyang Xu, and Jiangnan Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11075–11088, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11075-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11075-2017, 2017
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Kristina Pistone, Puppala S. Praveen, Rick M. Thomas, Veerabhadran Ramanathan, Eric M. Wilcox, and Frida A.-M. Bender
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 5203–5227, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5203-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5203-2016, 2016
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A recent field campaign (CARDEX) in the northern Indian Ocean concurrently measured cloud and aerosol properties and atmospheric structure and dynamics from a ground-based observatory and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These new measurements show a correlation between highly polluted conditions and increased cloud water content, concurrent with higher atmospheric temperature and humidity. Such correlations may be of interest in future studies of the effects of pollution on cloud properties.
F. Höpner, F. A.-M. Bender, A. M. L. Ekman, P. S. Praveen, C. Bosch, J. A. Ogren, A. Andersson, Ö. Gustafsson, and V. Ramanathan
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The paper presents aerosol properties measured during the Cloud Aerosol Radiative Forcing Experiment (CARDEX) on the Maldives Islands in winter 2012. The vertical distribution of absorbing aerosol which is very relevant to the radiative forcing in that region, is investigated. A method for determining particle absorption and equivalent black carbon concentration from lidar extinction coefficients, characteristic single scattering albedo and mass absorption efficiency, is presented and evaluated.
Y. Xu and S.-P. Xie
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 5827–5833, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-5827-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-5827-2015, 2015
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A. Cazorla, R. Bahadur, K. J. Suski, J. F. Cahill, D. Chand, B. Schmid, V. Ramanathan, and K. A. Prather
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 9337–9350, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9337-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9337-2013, 2013
Y. Feng, V. Ramanathan, and V. R. Kotamarthi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 8607–8621, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-8607-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-8607-2013, 2013
Y. Xu, D. Zaelke, G. J. M. Velders, and V. Ramanathan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6083–6089, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6083-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6083-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Regional to global distributions, trends, and drivers of biogenic volatile organic compound emission from 2001 to 2020
Impacts of ice-nucleating particles on cirrus clouds and radiation derived from global model simulations with MADE3 in EMAC
Seasonal characteristics of emission, distribution, and radiative effect of marine organic aerosols over the western Pacific Ocean: an investigation with a coupled regional climate aerosol model
Fire–precipitation interactions amplify the quasi-biennial variability in fires over southern Mexico and Central America
Improved estimates of smoke exposure during Australia fire seasons: importance of quantifying plume injection heights
New particle formation induced by anthropogenic–biogenic interactions on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau
Investigation of observed dust trends over the Middle East region in NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model simulations
A new process-based and scale-aware desert dust emission scheme for global climate models – Part II: Evaluation in the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2)
How well do Earth system models reproduce the observed aerosol response to rapid emission reductions? A COVID-19 case study
Observationally constrained analysis of sulfur cycle in the marine atmosphere with NASA ATom measurements and AeroCom model simulations
Impact of acidity and surface-modulated acid dissociation on cloud response to organic aerosol
The contribution of residential wood combustion to the PM2.5 concentrations in the Helsinki metropolitan area
Analysis of atmospheric particle growth based on vapor concentrations measured at the high-altitude GAW station Chacaltaya in the Bolivian Andes
Expanding the simulation of East Asian super dust storms: physical transport mechanisms impacting the western Pacific
Improving 3-day deterministic air pollution forecasts using machine learning algorithms
Opinion: The importance of historical and paleoclimate aerosol radiative effects
Assessing the assimilation of Himawari-8 observations on aerosol forecasts and radiative effects during pollution transport from South Asia to the Tibetan Plateau
Aerosol–meteorology feedback diminishes the transboundary transport of black carbon into the Tibetan Plateau
Associations of interannual variation in summer tropospheric ozone with the Western Pacific Subtropical High in China from 1999 to 2017
Climate intervention using marine cloud brightening (MCB) compared with stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) in the UKESM1 climate model
Comparison of six approaches to predicting droplet activation of surface active aerosol – Part 2: Strong surfactants
Increased importance of aerosol–cloud interactions for surface PM2.5 pollution relative to aerosol–radiation interactions in China with the anthropogenic emission reductions
The role of temporal scales in extracting dominant meteorological drivers of major airborne pollutants
Biomass-burning smoke's properties and its interactions with marine stratocumulus clouds in WRF-CAM5 and southeastern Atlantic field campaigns
Air pollution trapping in the Dresden Basin from gray-zone scale urban modeling
The effect of atmospherically relevant aminium salts on water uptake
Droplet collection efficiencies estimated from satellite retrievals constrain effective radiative forcing of aerosol-cloud interactions
The impact of aerosols on stratiform clouds over southern West Africa: a large-eddy-simulation study
Numerical simulation and evaluation of global ultrafine particle concentrations at the Earth's surface
Comparing the simulated influence of biomass burning plumes on low-level clouds over the southeastern Atlantic under varying smoke conditions
Molecular-level study on the role of methanesulfonic acid in iodine oxoacids nucleation
Global aviation contrail climate effects from 2019 to 2021
Global aerosol typing classification using a new hybrid algorithm utilizing Aerosol Robotic Network data
Temporal and spatial variations in dust activity in Australia based on remote sensing and reanalysis data sets
The underappreciated role of transboundary pollution in future air quality and health improvements in China
The export of African mineral dust across the Atlantic and its impact over the Amazon Basin
Assimilation of POLDER observations to estimate aerosol emissions
Effect of radiation interaction and aerosol processes on ventilation and aerosol concentrations in a real urban neighbourhood in Helsinki
Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation modulates the relationship between El Niño–Southern Oscillation and fire weather in Australia
Sharp increase of Saharan dust intrusions over the Western Mediterranean and Euro-Atlantic region in winters 2020–2022 and associated atmospheric circulation
Phase state and viscosity of secondary organic aerosols over China simulated by WRF-Chem
Identifying climate model structural inconsistencies allows for tight constraint of aerosol radiative forcing
Sensitivity of global direct aerosol radiative forcing to uncertainties in aerosol optical properties
Impacts of reducing scattering and absorbing aerosols on the temporal extent and intensity of South Asian summer monsoon and East Asian summer monsoon
Superimposed effects of typical local circulations driven by mountainous topography and aerosol–radiation interaction on heavy haze in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei central and southern plains in winter
Multi-model ensemble projection of the global dust cycle by the end of 21st century using the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project version 6 data
A thermodynamic framework for bulk–surface partitioning in finite-volume mixed organic–inorganic aerosol particles and cloud droplets
Improved Simulations of Biomass Burning Aerosol Optical Properties and Lifetimes in the NASA GEOS Model during the ORACLES-I Campaign
Change from aerosol-driven to cloud-feedback-driven trend in short-wave radiative flux over the North Atlantic
A new process-based and scale-aware desert dust emission scheme for global climate models – Part I: Description and evaluation against inverse modeling emissions
Hao Wang, Xiaohong Liu, Chenglai Wu, and Guangxing Lin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3309–3328, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3309-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3309-2024, 2024
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We quantified different global- and regional-scale drivers of biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emission trends over the past 20 years. The results show that global greening trends significantly boost BVOC emissions and deforestation reduces BVOC emissions in South America and Southeast Asia. Elevated temperature in Europe and increased soil moisture in East and South Asia enhance BVOC emissions. The results deepen our understanding of long-term BVOC emission trends in hotspots.
Christof G. Beer, Johannes Hendricks, and Mattia Righi
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Organic aerosols of marine origin are important for aerosol climatic effects but are poorly understood. For the first time, an online coupled regional chemistry–climate model is applied to explore the characteristics of emission, distribution, and direct and indirect radiative effects of marine organic aerosols over the western Pacific, which reveals an important role of marine organic aerosols in perturbing cloud and radiation and promotes understanding of global aerosol climatic impact.
Yawen Liu, Yun Qian, Philip J. Rasch, Kai Zhang, Lai-yung Ruby Leung, Yuhang Wang, Minghuai Wang, Hailong Wang, Xin Huang, and Xiu-Qun Yang
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Fire management has long been a challenge. Here we report that spring-peak fire activity over southern Mexico and Central America (SMCA) has a distinct quasi-biennial signal by measuring multiple fire metrics. This signal is initially driven by quasi-biennial variability in precipitation and is further amplified by positive feedback of fire–precipitation interaction at short timescales. This work highlights the importance of fire–climate interactions in shaping fires on an interannual scale.
Xu Feng, Loretta J. Mickley, Michelle L. Bell, Tianjia Liu, Jenny A. Fisher, and Maria Val Martin
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During severe wildfire seasons, smoke can have a significant impact on air quality in Australia. Our study demonstrates that characterization of the smoke plume injection fractions greatly affects estimates of surface smoke PM2.5. Using the plume behavior predicted by the machine learning method leads to the best model agreement with observed surface PM2.5 in key cities across Australia, with smoke PM2.5 accounting for 5 %–52 % of total PM2.5 on average during fire seasons from 2009 to 2020.
Shiyi Lai, Ximeng Qi, Xin Huang, Sijia Lou, Xuguang Chi, Liangduo Chen, Chong Liu, Yuliang Liu, Chao Yan, Mengmeng Li, Tengyu Liu, Wei Nie, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Tuukka Petäjä, Markku Kulmala, and Aijun Ding
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2535–2553, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2535-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2535-2024, 2024
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By combining in situ measurements and chemical transport modeling, this study investigates new particle formation (NPF) on the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. We found that the NPF was driven by the presence of biogenic gases and the transport of anthropogenic precursors. The NPF was vertically heterogeneous and shaped by the vertical mixing. This study highlights the importance of anthropogenic–biogenic interactions and meteorological dynamics in NPF in this climate-sensitive region.
Adriana Rocha-Lima, Peter R. Colarco, Anton S. Darmenov, Edward P. Nowottnick, Arlindo M. da Silva, and Luke D. Oman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2443–2464, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2443-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2443-2024, 2024
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Observations show an increasing aerosol optical depth trend in the Middle East between 2003–2012. We evaluate the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) model's ability to capture these trends and examine the meteorological and surface parameters driving dust emissions. Our results highlight the importance of data assimilation for long-term trends of atmospheric aerosols and support the hypothesis that vegetation cover loss may have contributed to increasing dust emissions in the period.
Danny M. Leung, Jasper F. Kok, Longlei Li, Natalie M. Mahowald, David M. Lawrence, Simone Tilmes, Erik Kluzek, Martina Klose, and Carlos Pérez García-Pando
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2287–2318, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2287-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2287-2024, 2024
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This study uses a premier Earth system model to evaluate a new desert dust emission scheme proposed in our companion paper. We show that our scheme accounts for more dust emission physics, hence matching better against observations than other existing dust emission schemes do. Our scheme's dust emissions also couple tightly with meteorology, hence likely improving the modeled dust sensitivity to climate change. We believe this work is vital for improving dust representation in climate models.
Ruth A. R. Digby, Nathan P. Gillett, Adam H. Monahan, Knut von Salzen, Antonis Gkikas, Qianqian Song, and Zhibo Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2077–2097, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2077-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2077-2024, 2024
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The COVID-19 lockdowns reduced aerosol emissions. We ask whether these reductions affected regional aerosol optical depth (AOD) and compare the observed changes to predictions from Earth system models. Only India has an observed AOD reduction outside of typical variability. Models overestimate the response in some regions, but when key biases have been addressed, the agreement is improved. Our results suggest that current models can realistically predict the effects of future emission changes.
Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Peter R. Colarco, Eric C. Apel, Donald R. Blake, Karl Froyd, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Jose Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano Jost, Michael Lawler, Mingxu Liu, Marianne Tronstad Lund, Hitoshi Matsui, Benjamin A. Nault, Joyce E. Penner, Andrew W. Rollins, Gregory Schill, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Hailong Wang, Lu Xu, Kai Zhang, and Jialei Zhu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1717–1741, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1717-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1717-2024, 2024
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This work studies sulfur in the remote troposphere at global and seasonal scales using aircraft measurements and multi-model simulations. The goal is to understand the sulfur cycle over remote oceans, spread of model simulations, and observation–model discrepancies. Such an understanding and comparison with real observations are crucial to narrow down the uncertainties in model sulfur simulations and improve understanding of the sulfur cycle in atmospheric air quality, climate, and ecosystems.
Gargi Sengupta, Minjie Zheng, and Nønne L. Prisle
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1467–1487, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1467-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1467-2024, 2024
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The effect of organic acid aerosol on sulfur chemistry and cloud properties was investigated in an atmospheric model. Organic acid dissociation was considered using both bulk and surface-related properties. We found that organic acid dissociation leads to increased hydrogen ion concentrations and sulfate aerosol mass in aqueous aerosols, increasing cloud formation. This could be important in large-scale climate models as many organic aerosol components are both acidic and surface-active.
Leena Kangas, Jaakko Kukkonen, Mari Kauhaniemi, Kari Riikonen, Mikhail Sofiev, Anu Kousa, Jarkko V. Niemi, and Ari Karppinen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1489–1507, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1489-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1489-2024, 2024
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Residential wood combustion is a major source of fine particulate matter. This study has evaluated the contribution of residential wood combustion to fine particle concentrations and its year-to-year and seasonal variation in te Helsinki metropolitan area. The average concentrations attributed to wood combustion in winter were up to 10- or 15-fold compared to summer. Wood combustion caused 12 % to 14 % of annual fine particle concentrations. In winter, the contribution ranged from 16 % to 21 %.
Arto Heitto, Cheng Wu, Diego Aliaga, Luis Blacutt, Xuemeng Chen, Yvette Gramlich, Liine Heikkinen, Wei Huang, Radovan Krejci, Paolo Laj, Isabel Moreno, Karine Sellegri, Fernando Velarde, Kay Weinhold, Alfred Wiedensohler, Qiaozhi Zha, Federico Bianchi, Marcos Andrade, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, Claudia Mohr, and Taina Yli-Juuti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1315–1328, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1315-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1315-2024, 2024
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Particle growth at the Chacaltaya station in Bolivia was simulated based on measured vapor concentrations and ambient conditions. Major contributors to the simulated growth were low-volatility organic compounds (LVOCs). Also, sulfuric acid had major role when volcanic activity was occurring in the area. This study provides insight on nanoparticle growth at this high-altitude Southern Hemispheric site and hence contributes to building knowledge of early growth of atmospheric particles.
Steven Soon-Kai Kong, Saginela Ravindra Babu, Sheng-Hsiang Wang, Stephen M. Griffith, Jackson Hian-Wui Chang, Ming-Tung Chuang, Guey-Rong Sheu, and Neng-Huei Lin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1041–1058, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1041-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1041-2024, 2024
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In this study, we combined ground observations from 7-SEAS Dongsha Experiment, MERRA-2 reanalysis, and MODIS satellite images for evaluation and improvement of the CMAQ dust model for cases of East Asian Dust reaching the Taiwan region, including Dongsha in the western Pacific. We proposed a better CMAQ dust treatment over East Asia and for the first time revealed the impact of typhoons on dust transport.
Zhiguo Zhang, Christer Johansson, Magnuz Engardt, Massimo Stafoggia, and Xiaoliang Ma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 807–851, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-807-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-807-2024, 2024
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Up-to-date information on present and near-future air quality help people avoid exposure to high levels of air pollution. We apply different machine learning models to significantly improve traditional forecasts of PM10, NOx, and O3 in Stockholm, Sweden. It is shown that forecasts of all air pollutants are improved by the input of lagged measurements and taking calendar information into account. The final modelled errors are substantially smaller than uncertainties in the measurements.
Natalie M. Mahowald, Longlei Li, Samuel Albani, Douglas S. Hamilton, and Jasper F. Kok
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 533–551, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-533-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-533-2024, 2024
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Estimating past aerosol radiative effects and their uncertainties is an important topic in climate science. Aerosol radiative effects propagate into large uncertainties in estimates of how present and future climate evolves with changing greenhouse gas emissions. A deeper understanding of how aerosols interacted with the atmospheric energy budget under past climates is hindered in part by a lack of relevant paleo-observations and in part because less attention has been paid to the problem.
Min Zhao, Tie Dai, Daisuke Goto, Hao Wang, and Guangyu Shi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 235–258, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-235-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-235-2024, 2024
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During a springtime pollution input from South Asia to the Tibetan Plateau, we combined atmospheric chemistry modeling and data assimilation methods to assimilate and forecast aerosols from South Asia and the Tibetan Plateau. Assimilation of observations over a whole time window leads to a more reasonable distribution of daily variations in the aerosol forecast field. We also find that aerosol assimilation can improve the surface solar energy forecast in the Tibetan Plateau region.
Yuling Hu, Haipeng Yu, Shichang Kang, Junhua Yang, Mukesh Rai, Xiufeng Yin, Xintong Chen, and Pengfei Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 85–107, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-85-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-85-2024, 2024
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The Tibetan Plateau (TP) saw a record-breaking aerosol pollution event from April 20 to May 10, 2016. We studied the impact of aerosol–meteorology feedback on the transboundary transport flux of black carbon (BC) during this severe pollution event. It was found that the aerosol–meteorology feedback decreases the transboundary transport flux of BC from the central and western Himalayas towards the TP. This study is of great significance for the protection of the ecological environment of the TP.
Xiaodong Zhang, Ruiyu Zhugu, Xiaohu Jian, Xinrui Liu, Kaijie Chen, Shu Tao, Junfeng Liu, Hong Gao, Tao Huang, and Jianmin Ma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15629–15642, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15629-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15629-2023, 2023
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WRF-Chem modeling was conducted to assess impacts of Western Pacific Subtropical High Pressure (WPSH) on interannual fluctuations of O3 pollution in China. We find that, while precursor emissions dominated the long-term trend and magnitude of O3 from 1999 to 2017, WPSH determined interannual variation of summer O3. The response of O3 pollution to WPSH in major urban clusters depended on the proximity of these urban areas to WPSH. The results could help long-term O3 pollution mitigation planning.
Jim M. Haywood, Andy Jones, Anthony C. Jones, Paul Halloran, and Philip J. Rasch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15305–15324, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15305-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15305-2023, 2023
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The difficulties in ameliorating global warming and the associated climate change via conventional mitigation are well documented, with all climate model scenarios exceeding 1.5 °C above the preindustrial level in the near future. There is therefore a growing interest in geoengineering to reflect a greater proportion of sunlight back to space and offset some of the global warming. We use a state-of-the-art Earth-system model to investigate two of the most prominent geoengineering strategies.
Sampo Vepsäläinen, Silvia M. Calderón, and Nønne L. Prisle
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15149–15164, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15149-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15149-2023, 2023
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Atmospheric aerosols act as seeds for cloud formation. Many aerosols contain surface active material that accumulates at the surface of growing droplets. This can affect cloud droplet activation, but the broad significance of the effect and the best way to model it are still debated. We compare predictions of six models to surface activity of strongly surface active aerosol and find significant differences between the models, especially with large fractions of surfactant in the dry particles.
Da Gao, Bin Zhao, Shuxiao Wang, Yuan Wang, Brian Gaudet, Yun Zhu, Xiaochun Wang, Jiewen Shen, Shengyue Li, Yicong He, Dejia Yin, and Zhaoxin Dong
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14359–14373, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14359-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14359-2023, 2023
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Surface PM2.5 concentrations can be enhanced by aerosol–radiation interactions (ARIs) and aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs). In this study, we found PM2.5 enhancement induced by ACIs shows a significantly smaller decrease ratio than that induced by ARIs in China with anthropogenic emission reduction from 2013 to 2021, making ACIs more important for enhancing PM2.5 concentrations. ACI-induced PM2.5 enhancement needs to be emphatically considered to meet the national PM2.5 air quality standard.
Miaoqing Xu, Jing Yang, Manchun Li, Xiao Chen, Qiancheng Lv, Qi Yao, Bingbo Gao, and Ziyue Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14065–14076, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14065-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14065-2023, 2023
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Although the temporal-scale effects on PM2.5–meteorology associations have been discussed, no quantitative evidence has proved this before. Based on rare 3 h meteorology data, we revealed that the dominant meteorological factor for PM2.5 concentrations across China extracted at the 3 h and 24 h scales presented large variations. This research suggests that data sources of different temporal scales should be comprehensively considered for better attribution and prevention of airborne pollution.
Calvin Howes, Pablo E. Saide, Hugh Coe, Amie Dobracki, Steffen Freitag, Jim M. Haywood, Steven G. Howell, Siddhant Gupta, Janek Uin, Mary Kacarab, Chongai Kuang, L. Ruby Leung, Athanasios Nenes, Greg M. McFarquhar, James Podolske, Jens Redemann, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Jenny P. S. Wong, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, Yang Zhang, Jianhao Zhang, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13911–13940, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13911-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13911-2023, 2023
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To better understand smoke properties and its interactions with clouds, we compare the WRF-CAM5 model with observations from ORACLES, CLARIFY, and LASIC field campaigns in the southeastern Atlantic in August 2017. The model transports and mixes smoke well but does not fully capture some important processes. These include smoke chemical and physical aging over 4–12 days, smoke removal by rain, sulfate particle formation, aerosol activation into cloud droplets, and boundary layer turbulence.
Michael Weger and Bernd Heinold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13769–13790, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13769-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13769-2023, 2023
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This study investigates the effects of complex terrain on air pollution trapping using a numerical model which simulates the dispersion of emissions under real meteorological conditions. The additionally simulated aerosol age allows us to distinguish areas that accumulate aerosol over time from areas that are more influenced by fresh emissions. The Dresden Basin, a widened section of the Elbe Valley in eastern Germany, is selected as the target area in a case study to demonstrate the concept.
Noora Hyttinen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13809–13817, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13809-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13809-2023, 2023
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Water activity in aerosol particles describes how particles respond to variations in relative humidity. Here, water activities were calculated for a set of 80 salts that may be present in aerosol particles using a state-of-the-art quantum-chemistry-based method. The effect of the dissociated salt on water activity varies with both the cation and anion. Most of the studied salts increase water uptake compared to pure water-soluble organic particles.
Charlotte M. Beall, Po-Lun Ma, Matthew W. Christensen, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Adam Varble, Kentaroh Suzuki, and Takuro Michibata
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2161, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2161, 2023
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Single-layer warm liquid clouds cover nearly one-third of the earth's surface, and uncertainties regarding the impact of aerosols on their radiative properties pose a significant challenge to climate prediction. Here, we demonstrate how satellite observations can be used to constrain Earth Systems Model estimates of the radiative forcing due to the interactions of aerosols with clouds due to warm rain processes.
Lambert Delbeke, Chien Wang, Pierre Tulet, Cyrielle Denjean, Maurin Zouzoua, Nicolas Maury, and Adrien Deroubaix
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13329–13354, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13329-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13329-2023, 2023
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Low-level stratiform clouds (LLSCs) appear frequently over southern West Africa during the West African monsoon. Local and remote aerosol sources (biomass burning aerosols from central Africa) play a significant role in the LLSC life cycle. Based on measurements by the DACCIWA campaign, large-eddy simulation (LES) was conducted using different aerosol scenarios. The results show that both indirect and semi-direct effects can act individually or jointly to influence the life cycles of LLSCs.
Matthias Kohl, Jos Lelieveld, Sourangsu Chowdhury, Sebastian Ehrhart, Disha Sharma, Yafang Cheng, Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Mathew Sebastian, Govindan Pandithurai, Hongli Wang, and Andrea Pozzer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13191–13215, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13191-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13191-2023, 2023
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Knowledge on atmospheric ultrafine particles (UFPs) with a diameter smaller than 100 nm is crucial for public health and the hydrological cycle. We present a new global dataset of UFP concentrations at the Earth's surface derived with a comprehensive chemistry–climate model and evaluated with ground-based observations. The evaluation results are combined with high-resolution primary emissions to downscale UFP concentrations to an unprecedented horizontal resolution of 0.1° × 0.1°.
Alejandro Baró Pérez, Michael S. Diamond, Frida A.-M. Bender, Abhay Devasthale, Matthias Schwarz, Julien Savre, Juha Tonttila, Harri Kokkola, Hyunho Lee, David Painemal, and Annica M. L. Ekman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2070, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2070, 2023
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We use a numerical model to study interactions between humid light-absorbing aerosol plumes, clouds, and radiation over the Southeast Atlantic. We find that the warming produced by the aerosols reduces cloud cover, especially in highly polluted situations. Aerosol impacts on drizzle play a minor role. However, aerosol effects on cloud reflectivity and moisture-induced changes in cloud cover dominate the climatic response and lead to an overall cooling by the biomass-burning plumes.
Jing Li, Nan Wu, An Ning, and Xiuhui Zhang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2084, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-2084, 2023
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Iodic acid (HIO3) nucleates with iodous acid (HIO2) efficiently in marine areas, however, whether methanesulfonic acid (MSA) can synergistically participate in the HIO3-HIO2-based nucleation is unclear. Our study provides molecular-level evidence that MSA can efficiently promote the formation of HIO3-HIO2-based clusters using a theoretical approach. The proposed MSA-enhanced iodine nucleation mechanism may help to deeply understand marine NPF events with burst of iodine particles.
Roger Teoh, Zebediah Engberg, Ulrich Schumann, Christiane Voigt, Marc Shapiro, Susanne Rohs, and Marc Stettler
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1859, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1859, 2023
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The radiative forcing attributable to aviation contrails is estimated for 2019–21. We estimate a global contrail net RF that is approximately half the best estimate of a previous study. Contrail climate impacts have not scaled proportionally with air traffic growth due to higher growth in regions where contrails are less likely to form. There are significant opportunities to mitigate contrail impacts as only 2 % of all flights globally account for 80 % of the annual contrail energy forcing.
Xiaoli Wei, Qian Cui, Leiming Ma, Feng Zhang, Wenwen Li, and Peng Liu
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1754, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1754, 2023
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A new aerosol-type classification algorithm was proposed. It includes an optical database building by Mie scattering and a complex refractive index working as a baseline to identify different aerosol types. The new algorithm shows high accuracy and efficiency. Hence, a global map of aerosol types was generated using the new algorithm to characterize aerosol types across the five continents. It will help improve the accuracy of aerosol inversion and determine the sources of aerosol pollution.
Yahui Che, Bofu Yu, and Katherine Bracco
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1710, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1710, 2023
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Dust events over Australia concentrated in the north and southeast in spring, and can occur anywhere to the east in summer, with the dust season finishing in autumn using a combined DAOD. Near-surface dust concentrations were the highest over the cente, and weakened radially away the center, decreasing along two main pathways. Total dust emission was about 40 Mt (mega-tonnes) per year from1980–2020, of which nearly 50 % was deposited on land; the rest as net export from the Australian continent.
Jun-Wei Xu, Jintai Lin, Dan Tong, and Lulu Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10075–10089, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10075-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10075-2023, 2023
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This study highlights the necessity of a low-carbon pathway in foreign countries for China to achieve air quality goals and to protect public health. We find that adopting the low-carbon instead of the fossil-fuel-intensive pathway in foreign countries would prevent 63 000–270 000 transboundary PM2.5-associated mortalities in China in 2060. Our study provides direct evidence of the necessity of inter-regional cooperation for air quality improvement.
Xurong Wang, Qiaoqiao Wang, Maria Prass, Christopher Pöhlker, Daniel Moran-Zuloaga, Paulo Artaxo, Jianwei Gu, Ning Yang, Xiajie Yang, Jiangchuan Tao, Juan Hong, Nan Ma, Yafang Cheng, Hang Su, and Meinrat O. Andreae
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9993–10014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9993-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9993-2023, 2023
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In this work, with an optimized particle mass size distribution, we captured observed aerosol optical depth (AOD) and coarse aerosol concentrations over source and/or receptor regions well, demonstrating good performance in simulating export of African dust toward the Amazon Basin. In addition to factors controlling the transatlantic transport of African dust, the study investigated the impact of African dust over the Amazon Basin, including the nutrient inputs associated with dust deposition.
Athanasios Tsikerdekis, Otto P. Hasekamp, Nick A. J. Schutgens, and Qirui Zhong
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9495–9524, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9495-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9495-2023, 2023
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Aerosols are tiny particles of different substances (species) that can be emitted into the atmosphere by natural processes or by anthropogenic activities. However, the actual aerosol emission amount per species is highly uncertain. Thus in this work we correct the aerosol emissions used to drive a global aerosol–climate model using satellite observations through a process called data assimilation. These more accurate aerosol emissions can lead to a more accurate weather and climate prediction.
Jani Strömberg, Xiaoyu Li, Mona Kurppa, Heino Kuuluvainen, Liisa Pirjola, and Leena Järvi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9347–9364, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9347-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9347-2023, 2023
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We conclude that with low wind speeds, solar radiation has a larger decreasing effect (53 %) on pollutant concentrations than aerosol processes (18 %). Additionally, our results showed that with solar radiation included, pollutant concentrations were closer to observations (−13 %) than with only aerosol processes (+98 %). This has implications when planning simulations under calm conditions such as in our case and when deciding whether or not simulations need to include these processes.
Guanyu Liu, Jing Li, and Tong Ying
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9217–9228, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9217-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9217-2023, 2023
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Fires in Australia are positively correlated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, the correlation between ENSO and the Australian Fire Weather Index (FWI) increases from 0.17 to 0.70 when the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) shifts from a negative to positive phase. This is explained by the teleconnection effect through which the warmer AMO generates Rossby wave trains and results in high pressures and a weather condition conducive to wildfires.
Emilio Cuevas-Agulló, David Barriopedro, Rosa Delia García, Silvia Alonso-Pérez, Juan Jesús González-Alemán, Ernest Werner, David Suárez, Juan José Bustos, Gerardo García-Castrillo, Omaira García, África Barreto, and Sara Basart
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1749, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1749, 2023
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In 2020–2022, several international agencies and media reported severe winter dust intrusions in Europe. Although winter dust intrusions are more common in the eastern Mediterranean, these events largely affected the western Mediterranean and Canary Islands. The present work provides a catalogue of dust events over the western Mediterranean region and describes their characteristics during the climatological (2003–2019) and recent anomalous (2020–2022) periods.
Zhiqiang Zhang, Ying Li, Haiyan Ran, Junling An, Yu Qu, Wei Zhou, Weiqi Xu, Weiwei Hu, Hongbin Xie, Zifa Wang, Yele Sun, and Manabu Shiraiwa
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1444, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1444, 2023
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Secondary organic aerosols (SOA) can exist in liquid, semi-solid or amorphous solid states, which are rarely accounted for in current chemical transport models. We predict the phase state of SOA particles over China and find that in the northwestern China SOA particles are mostly highly viscous or glassy solid. Our results indicate that the particle phase state should be considered in SOA formation in chemical transport models for more accurate prediction of SOA mass concentrations.
Leighton A. Regayre, Lucia Deaconu, Daniel P. Grosvenor, David M. H. Sexton, Christopher Symonds, Tom Langton, Duncan Watson-Paris, Jane P. Mulcahy, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Richardson, Jill S. Johnson, John W. Rostron, Hamish Gordon, Grenville Lister, Philip Stier, and Ken S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8749–8768, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8749-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8749-2023, 2023
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Aerosol forcing of Earth’s energy balance has persisted as a major cause of uncertainty in climate simulations over generations of climate model development. We show that structural deficiencies in a climate model are exposed by comprehensively exploring parametric uncertainty and that these deficiencies limit how much the model uncertainty can be reduced through observational constraint. This provides a future pathway towards building models with greater physical realism and lower uncertainty.
Jonathan Elsey, Nicolas Bellouin, and Claire Ryder
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1096, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1096, 2023
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Aerosols influence the Earth’s Energy balance. The uncertainty in this radiative forcing is large, depending partly on uncertainty in measurements of aerosol optical properties. We develop a freely available new framework of millions of radiative transfer simulations spanning aerosol uncertainty and assess the impact on radiative forcing uncertainty. We find that reducing these uncertainties would reduce radiative forcing uncertainty but that non-aerosol uncertainties must also be considered.
Chenwei Fang, Jim M. Haywood, Ju Liang, Ben T. Johnson, Ying Chen, and Bin Zhu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8341–8368, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8341-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8341-2023, 2023
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The responses of Asian summer monsoon duration and intensity to air pollution mitigation are identified given the net-zero future. We show that reducing scattering aerosols makes the rainy season longer and stronger across South Asia and East Asia but that absorbing aerosol reduction has the opposite effect. Our results hint at distinct monsoon responses to emission controls that target different aerosols.
Yue Peng, Hong Wang, Xiaoye Zhang, Zhaodong Liu, Wenjie Zhang, Siting Li, Chen Han, and Huizheng Che
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8325–8339, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8325-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8325-2023, 2023
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This study demonstrates a strong link between local circulation, aerosol–radiation interaction (ARI), and haze pollution. Under the weak weather-scale systems, the typical local circulation driven by mountainous topography is the main cause of pollutant distribution in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, and the ARI mechanism amplifies this influence of local circulation on pollutants, making haze pollution aggravated by the superposition of both.
Yuan Zhao, Xu Yue, Yang Cao, Jun Zhu, Chenguang Tian, Hao Zhou, Yuwen Chen, Yihan Hu, Weijie Fu, and Xu Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7823–7838, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7823-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7823-2023, 2023
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We project the future changes of dust emissions and loading using an ensemble of model outputs from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project version 6 under four scenarios. We find increased dust emissions and loading in North Africa, due to increased drought and strengthened surface wind, and decreased dust loading over Asia, following enhanced precipitation. Such a spatial pattern remains similar, though the regional intensity varies among different scenarios.
Ryan Schmedding and Andreas Zuend
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7741–7765, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7741-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7741-2023, 2023
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Aerosol particles below 100 nm in diameter have high surface-area-to-volume ratios. The enrichment of compounds in the surface of an aerosol particle may lead to depletion of that species in the interior bulk of the particle. We present a framework for modeling the equilibrium bulk–surface partitioning of mixed organic–inorganic particles, including cases of co-condensation of semivolatile organic compounds and species with extremely limited solubility in the bulk or surface of a particle.
Sampa Das, Peter Colarco, Huisheng Bian, and Santiago Gasso
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1311, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1311, 2023
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The smoke aerosols emitted from vegetation burning can alter the regional energy budget via multiple pathways. We utilized detailed observations from the NASA ORACLES airborne campaign based in Namibia during September 2016 to improve the representation of smoke aerosol properties and lifetimes in our GEOS Earth system model. The improved model simulations are for the first time able to capture the observed changes in the smoke absorption during long-range plume transport.
Daniel P. Grosvenor and Kenneth S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6743–6773, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6743-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6743-2023, 2023
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We determine what causes long-term trends in short-wave (SW) radiative fluxes in two climate models. A positive trend occurs between 1850 and 1970 (increasing SW reflection) and a negative trend between 1970 and 2014; the pre-1970 positive trend is mainly driven by an increase in cloud droplet number concentrations due to increases in aerosol, and the 1970–2014 trend is driven by a decrease in cloud fraction, which we attribute to changes in clouds caused by greenhouse gas-induced warming.
Danny M. Leung, Jasper F. Kok, Longlei Li, Gregory S. Okin, Catherine Prigent, Martina Klose, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, Laurent Menut, Natalie M. Mahowald, David M. Lawrence, and Marcelo Chamecki
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6487–6523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6487-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6487-2023, 2023
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Desert dust modeling is important for understanding climate change, as dust regulates the atmosphere's greenhouse effect and radiation. This study formulates and proposes a more physical and realistic desert dust emission scheme for global and regional climate models. By considering more aeolian processes in our emission scheme, our simulations match better against dust observations than existing schemes. We believe this work is vital in improving dust representation in climate models.
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Short summary
We show that black carbon aerosol pollution is likely the dominant factor in causing the accelerated retreat of snowpack in Himalayas. The simulated snow fraction and surface albedo change at the surface, as well as the enhanced warming at higher elevations, are remarkably similar to observations in past decades. The reason for the model's ability to simulate the observed trends is that we replace the model-simulated black carbon forcing with one that is constrained by observations.
We show that black carbon aerosol pollution is likely the dominant factor in causing the...
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