Articles | Volume 16, issue 22
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14331-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14331-2016
Research article
 | 
17 Nov 2016
Research article |  | 17 Nov 2016

Observational evidence for aerosols increasing upper tropospheric humidity

Laura Riuttanen, Marja Bister, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Viju O. John, Anu-Maija Sundström, Miikka Dal Maso, Jouni Räisänen, Victoria A. Sinclair, Risto Makkonen, Filippo Xausa, Gerrit de Leeuw, and Markku Kulmala

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Cited articles

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Here we show observational evidence that aerosols increase upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) via changes in the microphysics of deep convection. Using remote sensing data over the ocean east of China in summer, we show that increased aerosol loads are associated with an UTH increase of 2.2 ± 1.5 in units of relative humidity. We show that humidification of aerosols or other meteorological covariation is very unlikely to be the cause for this result indicating relevance for the global climate.
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