Articles | Volume 17, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12145-2017
© Author(s) 2017. 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-17-12145-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
12 Oct 2017
Research article |
| 12 Oct 2017
Uncertainty from the choice of microphysics scheme in convection-permitting models significantly exceeds aerosol effects
Bethan White
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Edward Gryspeerdt
Institute for Meteorology, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
Philip Stier
Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Hugh Morrison
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Gregory Thompson
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Zak Kipling
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Shinfield Park, Reading, UK
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William K. Jones, Martin Stengel, and Philip Stier
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George Horner and Edward Gryspeerdt
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Tropical deep convective clouds, and the thin cirrus (ice) clouds that flow out from them, are important for modulating the energy budget of the tropical atmosphere. This work uses a new method to track the evolution of the properties of these clouds across their entire lifetimes. We find these clouds cool the atmosphere in the first 6 h before switching to a warming regime after the deep convective core has dissipated, which is sustained beyond 120 h from the initial convective event.
Adam C. Varble, Adele L. Igel, Hugh Morrison, Wojciech W. Grabowski, and Zachary J. Lebo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13791–13808, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13791-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13791-2023, 2023
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As atmospheric particles called aerosols increase in number, the number of droplets in clouds tends to increase, which has been theorized to increase storm intensity. We critically evaluate the evidence for this theory, showing that flaws and limitations of previous studies coupled with unaddressed cloud process complexities draw it into question. We provide recommendations for future observations and modeling to overcome current uncertainties.
Peter Manshausen, Duncan Watson-Parris, Matthew W. Christensen, Jukka-Pekka Jalkanen, and Philip Stier
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Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Alyson Douglas, Timothy A. Myers, Peer Nowack, Philip Stier, Casey J. Wall, and Sarah Wilson Kemsley
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Sebastien Garrigues, Melanie Ades, Samuel Remy, Johannes Flemming, Zak Kipling, Istvan Laszlo, Mark Parrington, Antje Inness, Roberto Ribas, Luke Jones, Richard Engelen, and Vincent-Henri Peuch
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The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides global monitoring of aerosols using the ECMWF forecast model constrained by the assimilation of satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD). This work aims at evaluating the assimilation of the NOAA VIIRS AOD product in the ECMWF model. It shows that the introduction of VIIRS in the CAMS data assimilation system enhances the accuracy of the aerosol analysis, particularly over Europe and desert and maritime sites.
Rebecca J. Murray-Watson, Edward Gryspeerdt, and Tom Goren
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Clouds formed in Arctic marine cold air outbreaks undergo a distinct evolution, but the factors controlling their transition from high-coverage to broken cloud fields are poorly understood. We use satellite and reanalysis data to study how these clouds develop in time and the different influences on their evolution. The aerosol concentration is correlated with cloud break-up; more aerosol is linked to prolonged coverage and a stronger cooling effect, with implications for a more polluted Arctic.
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.
Ross Herbert and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4595–4616, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023, 2023
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We provide robust evidence from multiple sources showing that smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest significantly modifies the diurnal cycle of convection and cools the climate. Low to moderate amounts of smoke increase deep convective clouds and rain, whilst beyond a threshold amount, the smoke starts to suppress the convection and rain. We are currently at this threshold, suggesting increases in fires from agricultural practices or droughts will reduce cloudiness and rain over the region.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Adam C. Povey, Roy G. Grainger, Otto Hasekamp, N. Christina Hsu, Jane P. Mulcahy, Andrew M. Sayer, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4115–4122, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4115-2023, 2023
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The impact of aerosols on clouds is one of the largest uncertainties in the human forcing of the climate. Aerosol can increase the concentrations of droplets in clouds, but observational and model studies produce widely varying estimates of this effect. We show that these estimates can be reconciled if only polluted clouds are studied, but this is insufficient to constrain the climate impact of aerosol. The uncertainty in aerosol impact on clouds is currently driven by cases with little aerosol.
Anna Agustí-Panareda, Jérôme Barré, Sébastien Massart, Antje Inness, Ilse Aben, Melanie Ades, Bianca C. Baier, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Tobias Borsdorff, Nicolas Bousserez, Souhail Boussetta, Michael Buchwitz, Luca Cantarello, Cyril Crevoisier, Richard Engelen, Henk Eskes, Johannes Flemming, Sébastien Garrigues, Otto Hasekamp, Vincent Huijnen, Luke Jones, Zak Kipling, Bavo Langerock, Joe McNorton, Nicolas Meilhac, Stefan Noël, Mark Parrington, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Michel Ramonet, Miha Razinger, Maximilian Reuter, Roberto Ribas, Martin Suttie, Colm Sweeney, Jérôme Tarniewicz, and Lianghai Wu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3829–3859, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3829-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3829-2023, 2023
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We present a global dataset of atmospheric CO2 and CH4, the two most important human-made greenhouse gases, which covers almost 2 decades (2003–2020). It is produced by combining satellite data of CO2 and CH4 with a weather and air composition prediction model, and it has been carefully evaluated against independent observations to ensure validity and point out deficiencies to the user. This dataset can be used for scientific studies in the field of climate change and the global carbon cycle.
Andrew Gettelman, Hugh Morrison, Trude Eidhammer, Katherine Thayer-Calder, Jian Sun, Richard Forbes, Zachary McGraw, Jiang Zhu, Trude Storelvmo, and John Dennis
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 1735–1754, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1735-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-1735-2023, 2023
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Clouds are a critical part of weather and climate prediction. In this work, we document updates and corrections to the description of clouds used in several Earth system models. These updates include the ability to run the scheme on graphics processing units (GPUs), changes to the numerical description of precipitation, and a correction to the ice number. There are big improvements in the computational performance that can be achieved with GPU acceleration.
William K. Jones, Matthew W. Christensen, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1043–1059, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1043-2023, 2023
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Geostationary weather satellites have been used to detect storm clouds since their earliest applications. However, this task remains difficult as imaging satellites cannot observe the strong vertical winds that are characteristic of storm clouds. Here we introduce a new method that allows us to detect the early development of storms and continue to track them throughout their lifetime, allowing us to study how their early behaviour affects subsequent weather.
Leighton A. Regayre, Lucia Deaconu, Daniel P. Grosvenor, David Sexton, Christopher C. Symonds, Tom Langton, Duncan Watson-Paris, Jane P. Mulcahy, Kirsty J. Pringle, Mark Richardson, Jill S. Johnson, John Rostron, Hamish Gordon, Grenville Lister, Philip Stier, and Ken S. Carslaw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1330, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1330, 2022
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We show that potential structural deficiencies in a climate model can be exposed by comprehensively exploring its parametric uncertainty, and that these deficiencies limit how much the model uncertainty can be reduced through observational constraint. Combined consideration of parametric and structural uncertainties provides a future pathway towards building models that have greater physical realism and lower uncertainty.
Sebastien Garrigues, Samuel Remy, Julien Chimot, Melanie Ades, Antje Inness, Johannes Flemming, Zak Kipling, Istvan Laszlo, Angela Benedetti, Roberto Ribas, Soheila Jafariserajehlou, Bertrand Fougnie, Shobha Kondragunta, Richard Engelen, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Mark Parrington, Nicolas Bousserez, Margarita Vazquez Navarro, and Anna Agusti-Panareda
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14657–14692, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14657-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14657-2022, 2022
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The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) provides global monitoring of aerosols using the ECMWF forecast model constrained by the assimilation of satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD). This work aims at evaluating two new satellite AODs to enhance the CAMS aerosol global forecast. It highlights the spatial and temporal differences between the satellite AOD products at the model spatial resolution, which is essential information to design multi-satellite AOD data assimilation schemes.
Johannes Quaas, Hailing Jia, Chris Smith, Anna Lea Albright, Wenche Aas, Nicolas Bellouin, Olivier Boucher, Marie Doutriaux-Boucher, Piers M. Forster, Daniel Grosvenor, Stuart Jenkins, Zbigniew Klimont, Norman G. Loeb, Xiaoyan Ma, Vaishali Naik, Fabien Paulot, Philip Stier, Martin Wild, Gunnar Myhre, and Michael Schulz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12221–12239, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12221-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12221-2022, 2022
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Pollution particles cool climate and offset part of the global warming. However, they are washed out by rain and thus their effect responds quickly to changes in emissions. We show multiple datasets to demonstrate that aerosol emissions and their concentrations declined in many regions influenced by human emissions, as did the effects on clouds. Consequently, the cooling impact on the Earth energy budget became smaller. This change in trend implies a relative warming.
Zhipeng Qu, Alexei Korolev, Jason A. Milbrandt, Ivan Heckman, Yongjie Huang, Greg M. McFarquhar, Hugh Morrison, Mengistu Wolde, and Cuong Nguyen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12287–12310, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12287-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12287-2022, 2022
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Secondary ice production (SIP) is an important physical phenomenon that results in an increase in the cloud ice particle concentration and can have a significant impact on the evolution of clouds. Here, idealized simulations of a tropical convective system were conducted. Agreement between the simulations and observations highlights the impacts of SIP on the maintenance of tropical convection in nature and the importance of including the modelling of SIP in numerical weather prediction models.
Sini Isokääntä, Paul Kim, Santtu Mikkonen, Thomas Kühn, Harri Kokkola, Taina Yli-Juuti, Liine Heikkinen, Krista Luoma, Tuukka Petäjä, Zak Kipling, Daniel Partridge, and Annele Virtanen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11823–11843, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11823-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11823-2022, 2022
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This research employs air mass history analysis and observations to study how clouds and precipitation affect atmospheric aerosols during transport to a boreal forest site. The mass concentrations of studied chemical species showed exponential decrease as a function of accumulated rain along the air mass route. Our analysis revealed in-cloud sulfate formation, while no major changes in organic mass were seen. Most of the in-cloud-formed sulfate could be assigned to particle sizes above 200 nm.
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.
Qirui Zhong, Nick Schutgens, Guido van der Werf, Twan van Noije, Kostas Tsigaridis, Susanne E. Bauer, Tero Mielonen, Alf Kirkevåg, Øyvind Seland, Harri Kokkola, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, David Neubauer, Zak Kipling, Hitoshi Matsui, Paul Ginoux, Toshihiko Takemura, Philippe Le Sager, Samuel Rémy, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Kai Zhang, Jialei Zhu, Svetlana G. Tsyro, Gabriele Curci, Anna Protonotariou, Ben Johnson, Joyce E. Penner, Nicolas Bellouin, Ragnhild B. Skeie, and Gunnar Myhre
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11009–11032, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11009-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11009-2022, 2022
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Aerosol optical depth (AOD) errors for biomass burning aerosol (BBA) are evaluated in 18 global models against satellite datasets. Notwithstanding biases in satellite products, they allow model evaluations. We observe large and diverse model biases due to errors in BBA. Further interpretations of AOD diversities suggest large biases exist in key processes for BBA which require better constraining. These results can contribute to further model improvement and development.
Roger Teoh, Ulrich Schumann, Edward Gryspeerdt, Marc Shapiro, Jarlath Molloy, George Koudis, Christiane Voigt, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10919–10935, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10919-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10919-2022, 2022
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Aircraft condensation trails (contrails) contribute to over half of the climate forcing attributable to aviation. This study uses historical air traffic and weather data to simulate contrails in the North Atlantic over 5 years, from 2016 to 2021. We found large intra- and inter-year variability in contrail radiative forcing and observed a 66 % reduction due to COVID-19. Most warming contrails predominantly result from night-time flights in winter.
Haochi Che, Philip Stier, Duncan Watson-Parris, Hamish Gordon, and Lucia Deaconu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10789–10807, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10789-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10789-2022, 2022
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Extensive stratocumulus clouds over the south-eastern Atlantic (SEA) can lead to a cooling effect on the climate. A key pathway by which aerosols affect cloud properties is by acting as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Here, we investigated the source attribution of CCN in the SEA as well as the cloud responses. Our results show that aerosol nucleation contributes most to CCN in the marine boundary layer. In terms of emissions, anthropogenic sources contribute most to the CCN and cloud droplets.
Peng Xian, Jianglong Zhang, Norm T. O'Neill, Travis D. Toth, Blake Sorenson, Peter R. Colarco, Zak Kipling, Edward J. Hyer, James R. Campbell, Jeffrey S. Reid, and Keyvan Ranjbar
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9915–9947, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9915-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9915-2022, 2022
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The study provides baseline Arctic spring and summertime aerosol optical depth climatology, trend, and extreme event statistics from 2003 to 2019 using a combination of aerosol reanalyses, remote sensing, and ground observations. Biomass burning smoke has an overwhelming contribution to black carbon (an efficient climate forcer) compared to anthropogenic sources. Burning's large interannual variability and increasing summer trend have important implications for the Arctic climate.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Daniel T. McCoy, Ewan Crosbie, Richard H. Moore, Graeme J. Nott, David Painemal, Jennifer Small-Griswold, Armin Sorooshian, and Luke Ziemba
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3875–3892, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3875-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3875-2022, 2022
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Droplet number concentration is a key property of clouds, influencing a variety of cloud processes. It is also used for estimating the cloud response to aerosols. The satellite retrieval depends on a number of assumptions – different sampling strategies are used to select cases where these assumptions are most likely to hold. Here we investigate the impact of these strategies on the agreement with in situ data, the droplet number climatology and estimates of the indirect radiative forcing.
Samuel Rémy, Zak Kipling, Vincent Huijnen, Johannes Flemming, Pierre Nabat, Martine Michou, Melanie Ades, Richard Engelen, and Vincent-Henri Peuch
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 4881–4912, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4881-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4881-2022, 2022
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This article describes a new version of IFS-AER, the tropospheric aerosol scheme used to provide global aerosol products within the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) cycle. Several components of the model have been updated, such as the dynamical dust and sea salt aerosol emission schemes. New deposition schemes have also been incorporated but are not yet used operationally. This new version of IFS-AER has been evaluated and shown to have a greater skill than previous versions.
Jeong-Su Ko, Kyo-Sun Sunny Lim, Kwonil Kim, Gyuwon Lee, Gregory Thompson, and Alexis Berne
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 4529–4553, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4529-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-4529-2022, 2022
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This study evaluates the performance of the four microphysics parameterizations, the WDM6, WDM7, Thompson, and Morrison schemes, in simulating snowfall events during the ICE-POP 2018 field campaign. Eight snowfall events are selected and classified into three categories (cold-low, warm-low, and air–sea interaction cases). The evaluation focuses on the simulated hydrometeors, microphysics budgets, wind fields, and precipitation using the measurement data.
Hailing Jia, Johannes Quaas, Edward Gryspeerdt, Christoph Böhm, and Odran Sourdeval
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7353–7372, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7353-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7353-2022, 2022
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Aerosol–cloud interaction is the most uncertain component of the anthropogenic forcing of the climate. By combining satellite and reanalysis data, we show that the strength of the Twomey effect (S) increases remarkably with vertical velocity. Both the confounding effect of aerosol–precipitation interaction and the lack of vertical co-location between aerosol and cloud are found to overestimate S, whereas the retrieval biases in aerosol and cloud appear to underestimate S.
Joe McNorton, Nicolas Bousserez, Anna Agustí-Panareda, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Luca Cantarello, Richard Engelen, Vincent Huijnen, Antje Inness, Zak Kipling, Mark Parrington, and Roberto Ribas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5961–5981, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5961-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5961-2022, 2022
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Concentrations of atmospheric methane continue to grow, in recent years at an increasing rate, for unknown reasons. Using newly available satellite observations and a state-of-the-art weather prediction model we perform global estimates of emissions from hotspots at high resolution. Results show that the system can accurately report on biases in national inventories and is used to conclude that the early COVID-19 slowdown period (March–June 2020) had little impact on global methane emissions.
Rebecca J. Murray-Watson and Edward Gryspeerdt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5743–5756, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5743-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5743-2022, 2022
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Clouds are important to the Arctic surface energy budget, but the impact of aerosols on their properties is largely uncertain. This work shows that the response of liquid water path to cloud droplet number increases is strongly dependent on lower tropospheric stability (LTS), with weaker cooling effects in polluted clouds and at high LTS. LTS is projected to decrease in a warmer Arctic, reducing the cooling effect of aerosols and producing a positive, aerosol-dependent cloud feedback.
Po-Lun Ma, Bryce E. Harrop, Vincent E. Larson, Richard B. Neale, Andrew Gettelman, Hugh Morrison, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, Stephen A. Klein, Mark D. Zelinka, Yuying Zhang, Yun Qian, Jin-Ho Yoon, Christopher R. Jones, Meng Huang, Sheng-Lun Tai, Balwinder Singh, Peter A. Bogenschutz, Xue Zheng, Wuyin Lin, Johannes Quaas, Hélène Chepfer, Michael A. Brunke, Xubin Zeng, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Samson Hagos, Zhibo Zhang, Hua Song, Xiaohong Liu, Michael S. Pritchard, Hui Wan, Jingyu Wang, Qi Tang, Peter M. Caldwell, Jiwen Fan, Larry K. Berg, Jerome D. Fast, Mark A. Taylor, Jean-Christophe Golaz, Shaocheng Xie, Philip J. Rasch, and L. Ruby Leung
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 2881–2916, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2881-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-2881-2022, 2022
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An alternative set of parameters for E3SM Atmospheric Model version 1 has been developed based on a tuning strategy that focuses on clouds. When clouds in every regime are improved, other aspects of the model are also improved, even though they are not the direct targets for calibration. The recalibrated model shows a lower sensitivity to anthropogenic aerosols and surface warming, suggesting potential improvements to the simulated climate in the past and future.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Ming Xue, Hugh Morrison, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, Yachao Hu, Zhipeng Qu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2365–2384, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, 2022
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Numerous small ice crystals in tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. Previous numerical simulations failed to reproduce this phenomenon and hypothesized that key microphysical processes are still lacking in current models to realistically simulate the phenomenon. This study uses numerical experiments to confirm the dominant role of secondary ice production in the formation of these large numbers of small ice crystals.
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.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Andrew Williams, Lucia Deaconu, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 7659–7672, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7659-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-7659-2021, 2021
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The Earth System Emulator (ESEm) provides a fast and flexible framework for emulating a wide variety of Earth science datasets and tools for constraining (or tuning) models of any complexity. Three distinct use cases are presented that demonstrate the utility of ESEm and provide some insight into the use of machine learning for emulation in these different settings. The open-source Python package is freely available so that it might become a valuable tool for the community.
Maria Sand, Bjørn H. Samset, Gunnar Myhre, Jonas Gliß, Susanne E. Bauer, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, Paul Ginoux, Zak Kipling, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Philippe Le Sager, Marianne T. Lund, Hitoshi Matsui, Twan van Noije, Dirk J. L. Olivié, Samuel Remy, Michael Schulz, Philip Stier, Camilla W. Stjern, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Svetlana G. Tsyro, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15929–15947, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15929-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15929-2021, 2021
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Absorption of shortwave radiation by aerosols can modify precipitation and clouds but is poorly constrained in models. A total of 15 different aerosol models from AeroCom phase III have reported total aerosol absorption, and for the first time, 11 of these models have reported in a consistent experiment the contributions to absorption from black carbon, dust, and organic aerosol. Here, we document the model diversity in aerosol absorption.
Wojciech W. Grabowski and Hugh Morrison
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13997–14018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13997-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13997-2021, 2021
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The paper provides a discussion of key elements of moist convective dynamics: cloud buoyancy, latent heating, precipitation, and entrainment. The motivation comes from recent discussions concerning differences in convective dynamics in polluted and pristine environments.
Shipeng Zhang, Philip Stier, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10179–10197, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10179-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10179-2021, 2021
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The relationship between aerosol-induced changes in atmospheric energetics and precipitation responses across different scales is studied in terms of fast (radiatively or microphysically mediated) and slow (temperature-mediated) responses. We introduced a method to decompose rainfall changes into contributions from clouds, aerosols, and clear–clean sky from an energetic perspective. It provides a way to better interpret and quantify the precipitation changes caused by aerosol perturbations.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Xuguang Wang, Hugh Morrison, Alexander Ryzhkov, Yachao Hu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6919–6944, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, 2021
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Numerous small ice crystals in the tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. This study evaluated the numerical models against the airborne observations and investigated the potential cloud processes that could lead to the production of these large numbers of small ice crystals. It is found that key microphysical processes are still lacking or misrepresented in current numerical models to realistically simulate the phenomenon.
Nick Schutgens, Oleg Dubovik, Otto Hasekamp, Omar Torres, Hiren Jethva, Peter J. T. Leonard, Pavel Litvinov, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Gerrit de Leeuw, Stefan Kinne, Thomas Popp, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6895–6917, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6895-2021, 2021
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Absorptive aerosol has a potentially large impact on climate change. We evaluate and intercompare four global satellite datasets of absorptive aerosol optical depth (AAOD) and single-scattering albedo (SSA). We show that these datasets show reasonable correlations with the AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) reference, although significant biases remain. In a follow-up paper we show that these observations nevertheless can be used for model evaluation.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Tom Goren, and Tristan W. P. Smith
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6093–6109, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6093-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6093-2021, 2021
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Cloud responses to aerosol are time-sensitive, but this development is rarely observed. This study uses isolated aerosol perturbations from ships to measure this development and shows that macrophysical (width, cloud fraction, detectability) and microphysical (droplet number) properties of ship tracks vary strongly with time since emission, background cloud and meteorological state. This temporal development should be considered when constraining aerosol–cloud interactions with observations.
Harald Flentje, Ina Mattis, Zak Kipling, Samuel Rémy, and Werner Thomas
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 1721–1751, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-1721-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-1721-2021, 2021
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Atmospheric aerosols crucially impact air quality, climate and weather. Thus, global model forecasts of atmospheric constituents are published daily on the ECMWF website and are regularly verified by the CAMS service team. The IFS-AER model is largely able to reproduce observed 3-D distributions of the important particle types over Germany. The particle concentration is mostly captured within several tens of percent, but quantification of some specific processes still remains a challenge.
Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sarah J. Doherty, Bernadette Luna, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michael S. Diamond, Yohei Shinozuka, Ian Y. Chang, Rei Ueyama, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Amie N. Dobracki, Arlindo M. da Silva, Karla M. Longo, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Connor J. Flynn, Kristina Pistone, Nichola M. Knox, Stuart J. Piketh, James M. Haywood, Paola Formenti, Marc Mallet, Philip Stier, Andrew S. Ackerman, Susanne E. Bauer, Ann M. Fridlind, Gregory R. Carmichael, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Brian Cairns, Brent N. Holben, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Simone Tanelli, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Andrew M. Dzambo, Ousmane O. Sy, Greg M. McFarquhar, Michael R. Poellot, Siddhant Gupta, Joseph R. O'Brien, Athanasios Nenes, Mary Kacarab, Jenny P. S. Wong, Jennifer D. Small-Griswold, Kenneth L. Thornhill, David Noone, James R. Podolske, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Peter Pilewskie, Hong Chen, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Timothy J. Lang, Eric Stith, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Chris A. Hostetler, David J. Diner, Felix C. Seidel, Steven E. Platnick, Jeffrey S. Myers, Kerry G. Meyer, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Hal Maring, and Lan Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1507–1563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, 2021
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Southern Africa produces significant biomass burning emissions whose impacts on regional and global climate are poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA investigation designed to study the key processes that determine these climate impacts. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project, the dataset it produced, and the most important initial findings.
Jim M. Haywood, Steven J. Abel, Paul A. Barrett, Nicolas Bellouin, Alan Blyth, Keith N. Bower, Melissa Brooks, Ken Carslaw, Haochi Che, Hugh Coe, Michael I. Cotterell, Ian Crawford, Zhiqiang Cui, Nicholas Davies, Beth Dingley, Paul Field, Paola Formenti, Hamish Gordon, Martin de Graaf, Ross Herbert, Ben Johnson, Anthony C. Jones, Justin M. Langridge, Florent Malavelle, Daniel G. Partridge, Fanny Peers, Jens Redemann, Philip Stier, Kate Szpek, Jonathan W. Taylor, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1049–1084, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1049-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1049-2021, 2021
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Every year, the seasonal cycle of biomass burning from agricultural practices in Africa creates a huge plume of smoke that travels many thousands of kilometres over the Atlantic Ocean. This study provides an overview of a measurement campaign called the cloud–aerosol–radiation interaction and forcing for year 2017 (CLARIFY-2017) and documents the rationale, deployment strategy, observations, and key results from the campaign which utilized the heavily equipped FAAM atmospheric research aircraft.
Georgia Sotiropoulou, Étienne Vignon, Gillian Young, Hugh Morrison, Sebastian J. O'Shea, Thomas Lachlan-Cope, Alexis Berne, and Athanasios Nenes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 755–771, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-755-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-755-2021, 2021
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Summer clouds have a significant impact on the radiation budget of the Antarctic surface and thus on ice-shelf melting. However, these are poorly represented in climate models due to errors in their microphysical structure, including the number of ice crystals that they contain. We show that breakup from ice particle collisions can substantially magnify the ice crystal number concentration with significant implications for surface radiation. This process is currently missing in climate models.
Jonas Gliß, Augustin Mortier, Michael Schulz, Elisabeth Andrews, Yves Balkanski, Susanne E. Bauer, Anna M. K. Benedictow, Huisheng Bian, Ramiro Checa-Garcia, Mian Chin, Paul Ginoux, Jan J. Griesfeller, Andreas Heckel, Zak Kipling, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Paolo Laj, Philippe Le Sager, Marianne Tronstad Lund, Cathrine Lund Myhre, Hitoshi Matsui, Gunnar Myhre, David Neubauer, Twan van Noije, Peter North, Dirk J. L. Olivié, Samuel Rémy, Larisa Sogacheva, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Svetlana G. Tsyro
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 87–128, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-87-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-87-2021, 2021
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Simulated aerosol optical properties as well as the aerosol life cycle are investigated for 14 global models participating in the AeroCom initiative. Considerable diversity is found in the simulated aerosol species emissions and lifetimes, also resulting in a large diversity in the simulated aerosol mass, composition, and optical properties. A comparison with observations suggests that, on average, current models underestimate the direct effect of aerosol on the atmosphere radiation budget.
Haochi Che, Philip Stier, Hamish Gordon, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Lucia Deaconu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17–33, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17-2021, 2021
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The south-eastern Atlantic is semi-permanently covered by some of the largest stratocumulus clouds and is influenced by one-third of the biomass burning emissions from African fires. A UKEMS1 model simulation shows that the absorption effect of biomass burning aerosols is the most significant on clouds and radiation. The dominate cooling and rapid adjustments induced by the radiative effects of biomass burning aerosols result in an overall cooling in the south-eastern Atlantic.
Jane P. Mulcahy, Colin Johnson, Colin G. Jones, Adam C. Povey, Catherine E. Scott, Alistair Sellar, Steven T. Turnock, Matthew T. Woodhouse, Nathan Luke Abraham, Martin B. Andrews, Nicolas Bellouin, Jo Browse, Ken S. Carslaw, Mohit Dalvi, Gerd A. Folberth, Matthew Glover, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Catherine Hardacre, Richard Hill, Ben Johnson, Andy Jones, Zak Kipling, Graham Mann, James Mollard, Fiona M. O'Connor, Julien Palmiéri, Carly Reddington, Steven T. Rumbold, Mark Richardson, Nick A. J. Schutgens, Philip Stier, Marc Stringer, Yongming Tang, Jeremy Walton, Stephanie Woodward, and Andrew Yool
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 6383–6423, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6383-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-6383-2020, 2020
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Aerosols are an important component of the Earth system. Here, we comprehensively document and evaluate the aerosol schemes as implemented in the physical and Earth system models, HadGEM3-GC3.1 and UKESM1. This study provides a useful characterisation of the aerosol climatology in both models, facilitating the understanding of the numerous aerosol–climate interaction studies that will be conducted for CMIP6 and beyond.
Peng Xian, Philip J. Klotzbach, Jason P. Dunion, Matthew A. Janiga, Jeffrey S. Reid, Peter R. Colarco, and Zak Kipling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15357–15378, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15357-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15357-2020, 2020
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Using dust AOD (DAOD) data from three aerosol reanalyses, we explored the correlative relationships between DAOD and multiple indices representing seasonal Atlantic TC activities. A robust negative correlation with Caribbean DAOD and Atlantic TC activity was found. We documented for the first time the regional differences of this relationship for over the Caribbean and the tropical North Atlantic. We also evaluated the impacts of potential confounding climate factors in this relationship.
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.
Augustin Mortier, Jonas Gliß, Michael Schulz, Wenche Aas, Elisabeth Andrews, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Paul Ginoux, Jenny Hand, Brent Holben, Hua Zhang, Zak Kipling, Alf Kirkevåg, Paolo Laj, Thibault Lurton, Gunnar Myhre, David Neubauer, Dirk Olivié, Knut von Salzen, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Toshihiko Takemura, and Simone Tilmes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13355–13378, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13355-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13355-2020, 2020
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We present a multiparameter analysis of the aerosol trends over the last 2 decades in the different regions of the world. In most of the regions, ground-based observations show a decrease in aerosol content in both the total atmospheric column and at the surface. The use of climate models, assessed against these observations, reveals however an increase in the total aerosol load, which is not seen with the sole use of observation due to partial coverage in space and time.
Debbie O'Sullivan, Franco Marenco, Claire L. Ryder, Yaswant Pradhan, Zak Kipling, Ben Johnson, Angela Benedetti, Melissa Brooks, Matthew McGill, John Yorks, and Patrick Selmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12955–12982, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12955-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12955-2020, 2020
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Mineral dust is an important component of the climate system, and we assess how well it is predicted by two operational models. We flew an aircraft in the dust layers in the eastern Atlantic, and we also make use of satellites. We show that models predict the dust layer too low and that it predicts the particles to be too small. We believe that these discrepancies may be overcome if models can be constrained with operational observations of dust vertical and size-resolved distribution.
Nick Schutgens, Andrew M. Sayer, Andreas Heckel, Christina Hsu, Hiren Jethva, Gerrit de Leeuw, Peter J. T. Leonard, Robert C. Levy, Antti Lipponen, Alexei Lyapustin, Peter North, Thomas Popp, Caroline Poulsen, Virginia Sawyer, Larisa Sogacheva, Gareth Thomas, Omar Torres, Yujie Wang, Stefan Kinne, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12431–12457, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12431-2020, 2020
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We intercompare 14 different datasets of satellite observations of aerosol. Such measurements are challenging but also provide the best opportunity to globally observe an atmospheric component strongly related to air pollution and climate change. Our study shows that most datasets perform similarly well on a global scale but that locally errors can be quite different. We develop a technique to estimate satellite errors everywhere, even in the absence of surface reference data.
María A. Burgos, Elisabeth Andrews, Gloria Titos, Angela Benedetti, Huisheng Bian, Virginie Buchard, Gabriele Curci, Zak Kipling, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Anton Laakso, Julie Letertre-Danczak, Marianne T. Lund, Hitoshi Matsui, Gunnar Myhre, Cynthia Randles, Michael Schulz, Twan van Noije, Kai Zhang, Lucas Alados-Arboledas, Urs Baltensperger, Anne Jefferson, James Sherman, Junying Sun, Ernest Weingartner, and Paul Zieger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10231–10258, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10231-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10231-2020, 2020
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We investigate how well models represent the enhancement in scattering coefficients due to particle water uptake, and perform an evaluation of several implementation schemes used in ten Earth system models. Our results show the importance of the parameterization of hygroscopicity and model chemistry as drivers of some of the observed diversity amongst model estimates. The definition of dry conditions and the phenomena taking place in this relative humidity range also impact the model evaluation.
Laura Palacios-Peña, Philip Stier, Raquel Lorente-Plazas, and Pedro Jiménez-Guerrero
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9679–9700, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9679-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9679-2020, 2020
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It is widely known that the impact of aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions on the radiative forcing is subject to large uncertainties. This is mainly due to the lack of understanding of aerosol optical properties and vertical distribution, whose uncertainties come from different processes. This work attempts to quantify the sensitivity of aerosol optical properties and their vertical distribution to key physico-chemical processes.
Gunnar Myhre, Bjørn H. Samset, Christian W. Mohr, Kari Alterskjær, Yves Balkanski, Nicolas Bellouin, Mian Chin, James Haywood, Øivind Hodnebrog, Stefan Kinne, Guangxing Lin, Marianne T. Lund, Joyce E. Penner, Michael Schulz, Nick Schutgens, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8855–8865, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8855-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8855-2020, 2020
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The radiative forcing of the direct aerosol effects can be decomposed into clear-sky and cloudy-sky portions. In this study we use observational methods and two sets of multi-model global aerosol simulations over the industrial era to show that the contribution from cloudy-sky regions is likely weak.
Guy Dagan and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6291–6303, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6291-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6291-2020, 2020
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Ensemble daily simulations for two separate month-long periods over a region near Barbados were conducted to investigate aerosol effects on cloud properties and the atmospheric energy budget. For each day, two simulations were conducted with low and high cloud droplet number concentrations representing clean and polluted conditions, respectively. These simulations are used to distinguish between properties that are robustly affected by changes in aerosol concentrations and those that are not.
Joe R. McNorton, Nicolas Bousserez, Anna Agustí-Panareda, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Margarita Choulga, Andrew Dawson, Richard Engelen, Zak Kipling, and Simon Lang
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 2297–2313, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2297-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2297-2020, 2020
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To infer carbon emissions from observations using atmospheric models, detailed knowledge of uncertainty is required. The uncertainties associated with models are often estimated because they are difficult to attribute. Here we use a state-of-the-art weather model to assess the impact of uncertainty in the wind fields on atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. These results can be used to help quantify the uncertainty in estimated carbon emissions from atmospheric observations.
Zak Kipling, Laurent Labbouz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4445–4460, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4445-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4445-2020, 2020
Guy Dagan, Philip Stier, Matthew Christensen, Guido Cioni, Daniel Klocke, and Axel Seifert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4523–4544, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4523-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4523-2020, 2020
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In order to better understand the physical processes behind aerosol effects on the atmospheric energy budget, we analyse numerical simulations of tropical cloud systems. Two sets of simulations, at different dates during the NARVAL 2 field campaign, are simulated with different dominant cloud modes. Our results demonstrate that under different environmental conditions, the response of the atmospheric energy budget to aerosol perturbation could be different.
Alessio Bozzo, Angela Benedetti, Johannes Flemming, Zak Kipling, and Samuel Rémy
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 1007–1034, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1007-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1007-2020, 2020
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Aerosols are tiny particles of natural and anthropogenic origin transported by the winds in the Earth's atmosphere. These particles play a key role in the energy budget of our planet. In numerical models of the Earth's atmosphere, aerosols spatial distribution are often represented by conditions averaged over several years. We prepared a new aerosol climatology and used it in a numerical weather model. We show that in certain regions aerosols can affect the quality of numerical weather forecast.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Andrew Gettelman, Florent F. Malavelle, Hugh Morrison, David Neubauer, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Hailong Wang, Minghuai Wang, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 613–623, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-613-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-613-2020, 2020
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Aerosol radiative forcing is a key uncertainty in our understanding of the human forcing of the climate, with much of this uncertainty coming from aerosol impacts on clouds. Observation-based estimates of the radiative forcing are typically smaller than those from global models, but it is not clear if they are more reliable. This work shows how the forcing components in global climate models can be identified, highlighting similarities between the two methods and areas for future investigation.
Johannes Mülmenstädt, Edward Gryspeerdt, Marc Salzmann, Po-Lun Ma, Sudhakar Dipu, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 15415–15429, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15415-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15415-2019, 2019
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The effect of aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs) on Earth's energy budget continues to be highly uncertain. We decompose the effective radiative forcing by ACIs (ERFaci) into the instantaneous forcing due to anthropogenic increases in the number of cloud droplets and fast responses of cloud properties to the droplet number perturbation in the ECHAM–HAMMOZ aerosol–climate model. This decomposition maps onto the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report analysis of ERFaci more directly than previous work.
Samuel Rémy, Zak Kipling, Johannes Flemming, Olivier Boucher, Pierre Nabat, Martine Michou, Alessio Bozzo, Melanie Ades, Vincent Huijnen, Angela Benedetti, Richard Engelen, Vincent-Henri Peuch, and Jean-Jacques Morcrette
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 4627–4659, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4627-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4627-2019, 2019
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This article describes the IFS-AER aerosol module used operationally in the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) cycle 45R1, operated by the ECMWF in the framework of the Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Services (CAMS). We describe the different parameterizations for aerosol sources, sinks, and how the aerosols are integrated in the larger atmospheric composition forecasting system. The skill of PM and AOD simulations against observations is improved compared to the older cycle 40R2.
George Spill, Philip Stier, Paul R. Field, and Guy Dagan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13507–13517, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13507-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13507-2019, 2019
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Shallow convective clouds are among the most common and least understood clouds in the atmosphere. Here we present simulations of realistic, shallow cloud fields in a large domain, in contrast to typical idealised simulations, and find that in these simulations the response to aerosol perturbations is different.
Max Heikenfeld, Peter J. Marinescu, Matthew Christensen, Duncan Watson-Parris, Fabian Senf, Susan C. van den Heever, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 4551–4570, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4551-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-4551-2019, 2019
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We present tobac (Tracking and Object-Based Analysis of Clouds), a newly developed framework for tracking and analysing clouds in different types of datasets. It provides a flexible new way to include the evolution of individual clouds in a wide range of analyses. It is developed as a community project to provide a common basis for the inclusion of existing tracking algorithms and the development of new analyses that involve tracking clouds and other features in geoscientific research.
Øivind Hodnebrog, Gunnar Myhre, Bjørn H. Samset, Kari Alterskjær, Timothy Andrews, Olivier Boucher, Gregory Faluvegi, Dagmar Fläschner, Piers M. Forster, Matthew Kasoar, Alf Kirkevåg, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Dirk Olivié, Thomas B. Richardson, Dilshad Shawki, Drew Shindell, Keith P. Shine, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Apostolos Voulgarakis, and Duncan Watson-Parris
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 12887–12899, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12887-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12887-2019, 2019
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Different greenhouse gases (e.g. CO2) and aerosols (e.g. black carbon) impact the Earth’s water cycle differently. Here we investigate how various gases and particles impact atmospheric water vapour and its lifetime, i.e., the average number of days that water vapour stays in the atmosphere after evaporation and before precipitation. We find that this lifetime could increase substantially by the end of this century, indicating that important changes in precipitation patterns are excepted.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Nick Schutgens, Carly Reddington, Kirsty J. Pringle, Dantong Liu, James D. Allan, Hugh Coe, Ken S. Carslaw, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11765–11790, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11765-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11765-2019, 2019
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The vertical distribution of aerosol in the atmosphere affects its ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei and changes the amount of sunlight it absorbs or reflects. Common global measurements of aerosol provide no information about this vertical distribution. Using a global collection of in situ aircraft measurements to compare with an aerosol–climate model (ECHAM-HAM), we explore the key processes controlling this distribution and find that wet removal plays a key role.
David Neubauer, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Philip Stier, Daniel G. Partridge, Ina Tegen, Isabelle Bey, Tanja Stanelle, Harri Kokkola, and Ulrike Lohmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 3609–3639, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3609-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3609-2019, 2019
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The global aerosol–climate model ECHAM6.3–HAM2.3 as well as the previous model versions ECHAM5.5–HAM2.0 and ECHAM6.1–HAM2.2 are evaluated. The simulation of clouds has improved in ECHAM6.3–HAM2.3. This has an impact on effective radiative forcing due to aerosol–radiation and aerosol–cloud interactions and equilibrium climate sensitivity, which are weaker in ECHAM6.3–HAM2.3 than in the previous model versions.
George S. Fanourgakis, Maria Kanakidou, Athanasios Nenes, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Ken S. Carslaw, Alf Grini, Douglas S. Hamilton, Jill S. Johnson, Vlassis A. Karydis, Alf Kirkevåg, John K. Kodros, Ulrike Lohmann, Gan Luo, Risto Makkonen, Hitoshi Matsui, David Neubauer, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Julia Schmale, Philip Stier, Kostas Tsigaridis, Twan van Noije, Hailong Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, Daniel M. Westervelt, Yang Yang, Masaru Yoshioka, Nikos Daskalakis, Stefano Decesari, Martin Gysel-Beer, Nikos Kalivitis, Xiaohong Liu, Natalie M. Mahowald, Stelios Myriokefalitakis, Roland Schrödner, Maria Sfakianaki, Alexandra P. Tsimpidi, Mingxuan Wu, and Fangqun Yu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8591–8617, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8591-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8591-2019, 2019
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Effects of aerosols on clouds are important for climate studies but are among the largest uncertainties in climate projections. This study evaluates the skill of global models to simulate aerosol, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNCs). Model results show reduced spread in CDNC compared to CCN due to the negative correlation between the sensitivities of CDNC to aerosol number concentration (air pollution) and updraft velocity (atmospheric dynamics).
Stephanie Fiedler, Stefan Kinne, Wan Ting Katty Huang, Petri Räisänen, Declan O'Donnell, Nicolas Bellouin, Philip Stier, Joonas Merikanto, Twan van Noije, Risto Makkonen, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6821–6841, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6821-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6821-2019, 2019
Ina Tegen, David Neubauer, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Isabelle Bey, Nick Schutgens, Philip Stier, Duncan Watson-Parris, Tanja Stanelle, Hauke Schmidt, Sebastian Rast, Harri Kokkola, Martin Schultz, Sabine Schroeder, Nikos Daskalakis, Stefan Barthel, Bernd Heinold, and Ulrike Lohmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 1643–1677, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1643-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1643-2019, 2019
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We describe a new version of the aerosol–climate model ECHAM–HAM and show tests of the model performance by comparing different aspects of the aerosol distribution with different datasets. The updated version of HAM contains improved descriptions of aerosol processes, including updated emission fields and cloud processes. While there are regional deviations between the model and observations, the model performs well overall.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Tom Goren, Odran Sourdeval, Johannes Quaas, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sudhakar Dipu, Claudia Unglaub, Andrew Gettelman, and Matthew Christensen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5331–5347, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5331-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5331-2019, 2019
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The liquid water path (LWP) is the strongest control on cloud albedo, such that a small change in LWP can have a large radiative impact. By changing the droplet number concentration (Nd) aerosols may be able to change the LWP, but the sign and magnitude of the effect is unclear. This work uses satellite data to investigate the relationship between Nd and LWP at a global scale and in response to large aerosol perturbations, suggesting that a strong decrease in LWP at high Nd may be overestimated.
Joseph A. Finlon, Greg M. McFarquhar, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Robert M. Rauber, Hugh Morrison, Wei Wu, and Pengfei Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 3621–3643, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3621-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3621-2019, 2019
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A new approach describing the relationship between ice crystal mass (m) and dimension (D) is derived, characterizing it as a set of
equally realizableparameters based on the natural variability in cloud conditions observed by aircraft over the Great Plains. Results from this approach address shortcomings of microphysical parameterization schemes and remote sensing retrievals that employ a single m–D relation for a given ice species or environment.
Antje Inness, Melanie Ades, Anna Agustí-Panareda, Jérôme Barré, Anna Benedictow, Anne-Marlene Blechschmidt, Juan Jose Dominguez, Richard Engelen, Henk Eskes, Johannes Flemming, Vincent Huijnen, Luke Jones, Zak Kipling, Sebastien Massart, Mark Parrington, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Miha Razinger, Samuel Remy, Michael Schulz, and Martin Suttie
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 3515–3556, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3515-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3515-2019, 2019
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This paper describes a new global dataset of atmospheric composition data for the years 2003-2016 that has been produced by the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). It is called the CAMS reanalysis and provides information on aerosols and reactive gases. The CAMS reanalysis shows an improved performance compared to our previous atmospheric composition reanalyses; has smaller biases compared to independent O3, CO, NO2 and aerosol observations; and is more consistent in time.
Max Heikenfeld, Bethan White, Laurent Labbouz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2601–2627, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2601-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2601-2019, 2019
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Aerosols can affect the evolution of deep convective clouds by controlling the cloud droplet number concentration. We perform a detailed analysis of the pathways of such aerosol perturbations through the cloud microphysics in numerical model simulations. By focussing on individually tracked convective cells, we can reveal consistent changes to individual process rates, such as a lifting of freezing and riming, but also major differences between the three different microphysics schemes used.
Odran Sourdeval, Edward Gryspeerdt, Martina Krämer, Tom Goren, Julien Delanoë, Armin Afchine, Friederike Hemmer, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14327–14350, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14327-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14327-2018, 2018
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The number concentration of ice crystals (Ni) is a key cloud property that remains very uncertain due to difficulties in determining it using satellites. This lack of global observational constraints limits our ability to constrain this property in models responsible for predicting future climate. This pair of papers fills this gap by showing and analyzing the first rigorously evaluated global climatology of Ni, leading to new information shedding light on the processes that control high clouds.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Odran Sourdeval, Johannes Quaas, Julien Delanoë, Martina Krämer, and Philipp Kühne
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14351–14370, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14351-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14351-2018, 2018
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The concentration of ice crystals in a cloud affects both the properties and the life cycle of the cloud. This work uses a new satellite retrieval to investigate controls on the ice crystal concentration at a global scale. Both temperature and vertical wind speed in a cloud have a strong impact on the concentration of ice crystals. The ice crystal number is also related to the aerosol environment; defining this relation opens up new ways to investigate human impacts on clouds and the climate.
Harri Kokkola, Thomas Kühn, Anton Laakso, Tommi Bergman, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, Tero Mielonen, Antti Arola, Scarlet Stadtler, Hannele Korhonen, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Ulrike Lohmann, David Neubauer, Ina Tegen, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Martin G. Schultz, Isabelle Bey, Philip Stier, Nikos Daskalakis, Colette L. Heald, and Sami Romakkaniemi
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 3833–3863, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3833-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3833-2018, 2018
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In this paper we present a global aerosol–chemistry–climate model with the focus on its representation for atmospheric aerosol particles. In the model, aerosols are simulated using the aerosol module SALSA2.0, which in this paper is compared to satellite, ground, and aircraft-based observations of the properties of atmospheric aerosol. Based on this study, the model simulated aerosol properties compare well with the observations.
Martin G. Schultz, Scarlet Stadtler, Sabine Schröder, Domenico Taraborrelli, Bruno Franco, Jonathan Krefting, Alexandra Henrot, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Ulrike Lohmann, David Neubauer, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Sebastian Wahl, Harri Kokkola, Thomas Kühn, Sebastian Rast, Hauke Schmidt, Philip Stier, Doug Kinnison, Geoffrey S. Tyndall, John J. Orlando, and Catherine Wespes
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1695–1723, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1695-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1695-2018, 2018
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The chemistry–climate model ECHAM-HAMMOZ contains a detailed representation of tropospheric and stratospheric reactive chemistry and state-of-the-art parameterizations of aerosols. It thus allows for detailed investigations of chemical processes in the climate system. Evaluation of the model with various observational data yields good results, but the model has a tendency to produce too much OH in the tropics. This highlights the important interplay between atmospheric chemistry and dynamics.
Edward Gryspeerdt, Johannes Quaas, Tom Goren, Daniel Klocke, and Matthias Brueck
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 6157–6169, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6157-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6157-2018, 2018
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Cirrus clouds can form by a variety of mechanisms, such as orographic uplift, through convective systems or through large-scale rising motions. In this work, an automated classification of cirrus clouds based on satellite and reanalysis data is presented to separate cirrus by these different formation mechanisms. The classification provides information on the ice origin and cloud-scale updraughts that could not be determined using satellite or reanalysis data alone.
Maria Sand, Bjørn H. Samset, Yves Balkanski, Susanne Bauer, Nicolas Bellouin, Terje K. Berntsen, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Thomas Diehl, Richard Easter, Steven J. Ghan, Trond Iversen, Alf Kirkevåg, Jean-François Lamarque, Guangxing Lin, Xiaohong Liu, Gan Luo, Gunnar Myhre, Twan van Noije, Joyce E. Penner, Michael Schulz, Øyvind Seland, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Fangqun Yu, Kai Zhang, and Hua Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12197–12218, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12197-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12197-2017, 2017
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The role of aerosols in the changing polar climate is not well understood and the aerosols are poorly constrained in the models. In this study we have compared output from 16 different aerosol models with available observations at both poles. We show that the model median is representative of the observations, but the model spread is large. The Arctic direct aerosol radiative effect over the industrial area is positive during spring due to black carbon and negative during summer due to sulfate.
Nick Schutgens, Svetlana Tsyro, Edward Gryspeerdt, Daisuke Goto, Natalie Weigum, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9761–9780, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9761-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9761-2017, 2017
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We estimate representativeness errors in observations due to mismatching spatio-temporal sampling, on timescales of hours to a year and length scales of 50 to 200 km, for a variety of observing systems (in situ or remote sensing ground sites, satellites with imagers or lidar, etc.) and develop strategies to reduce them. This study is relevant to the use of observations in constructing satellite L3 products, observational intercomparison and model evaluation.
Sarah Taylor, Philip Stier, Bethan White, Stephan Finkensieper, and Martin Stengel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7035–7053, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7035-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7035-2017, 2017
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Variability of convective cloud spans a wide range of temporal and spatial scales and is important for global weather and climate. This study uses satellite data from SEVIRI to quantify the diurnal cycle of cloud top temperatures over a large area. Results indicate that in some regions the diurnal cycle apparent in the observations may be significantly impacted by diurnal variability in the accuracy of the retrieval. These results may interest both the observation and modelling communities.
Zak Kipling, Philip Stier, Laurent Labbouz, and Till Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 327–342, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-327-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-327-2017, 2017
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We present the first evaluation of the convective cloud field model (CCFM) in the context of a global climate model. CCFM attempts to address some of the shortcomings of commonly used representations of convection, in particular allowing for physically based aerosol effects on different types of convective cloud. We show that the model performs well overall in the context of the climate model and is thus well placed to study aerosol–convection–climate interactions at the global scale.
Natalie Weigum, Nick Schutgens, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 13619–13639, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13619-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13619-2016, 2016
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We introduce a novel technique to isolate the effect of aerosol variability in models from other sources of variability by varying the resolution of aerosol and trace gas fields while maintaining a constant resolution in the rest of the model.
Our results show that aerosol variability has a large impact on simulating aerosol climate effects, even when meteorology and dynamics are fixed. Processes most affected are gas-phase chemistry and aerosol uptake of water through equilibrium reactions.
Our results show that aerosol variability has a large impact on simulating aerosol climate effects, even when meteorology and dynamics are fixed. Processes most affected are gas-phase chemistry and aerosol uptake of water through equilibrium reactions.
Samuel Lowe, Daniel G. Partridge, David Topping, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10941–10963, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10941-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10941-2016, 2016
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A novel inverse modelling framework is developed for analysing the sensitivity of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to simultaneous perturbations in multiple model parameters at atmospherically relevant humidities. Many parameter interactions are identified and CCN concentrations are found to be relatively insensitive to bulk–surface partitioning, while aerosol concentration, surface tension, composition and solution ideality exhibit a higher degree of sensitivity.
Duncan Watson-Parris, Nick Schutgens, Nicholas Cook, Zak Kipling, Philip Kershaw, Edward Gryspeerdt, Bryan Lawrence, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 3093–3110, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3093-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3093-2016, 2016
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In this paper we describe CIS, a new command line tool for the easy visualization, analysis and comparison of a wide variety of gridded and ungridded data sets used in Earth sciences. Users can now use a single tool to not only view plots of satellite, aircraft, station or model data, but also bring them onto the same spatio-temporal sampling. This allows robust, quantitative comparisons to be made easily. CIS is an open-source project and welcomes input from the community.
Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 6595–6607, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6595-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6595-2016, 2016
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Cloud droplets form on suitable nuclei from aerosol emissions. Clouds with more droplets have higher reflectance so that aerosol emissions have a cooling climate effect. Numerous publications of these effects rely on passive satellite remote sensing. In this work I use a self consistent global aerosol model to show that a commonly used assumption (passively retrieved aerosol extinction is a suitable proxy for cloud condensation nuclei) is violated for a significant fraction of the Earth.
Nick A. J. Schutgens, Edward Gryspeerdt, Natalie Weigum, Svetlana Tsyro, Daisuke Goto, Michael Schulz, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 6335–6353, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6335-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6335-2016, 2016
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We show that evaluating global aerosol model data with observations of very different spatial scales (200 vs. 10 km) can lead to large discrepancies, solely due to different spatial sampling. Strategies for reducing these sampling errors are developed and tested using a set of high-resolution model simulations.
Shipeng Zhang, Minghuai Wang, Steven J. Ghan, Aijun Ding, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, David Neubauer, Ulrike Lohmann, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Toshihiko Takeamura, Andrew Gettelman, Hugh Morrison, Yunha Lee, Drew T. Shindell, Daniel G. Partridge, Philip Stier, Zak Kipling, and Congbin Fu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2765–2783, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2765-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2765-2016, 2016
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The variation of aerosol indirect effects (AIE) in several climate models is investigated across different dynamical regimes. Regimes with strong large-scale ascent are shown to be as important as stratocumulus regimes in studying AIE. AIE over regions with high monthly large-scale surface precipitation rate contributes the most to the total aerosol indirect forcing. These results point to the need to reduce the uncertainty in AIE in different dynamical regimes.
Zak Kipling, Philip Stier, Colin E. Johnson, Graham W. Mann, Nicolas Bellouin, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Mian Chin, Thomas Diehl, Steven J. Ghan, Trond Iversen, Alf Kirkevåg, Harri Kokkola, Xiaohong Liu, Gan Luo, Twan van Noije, Kirsty J. Pringle, Knut von Salzen, Michael Schulz, Øyvind Seland, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2221–2241, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2221-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2221-2016, 2016
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The vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosol is an important factor in its effects on climate. In this study we use a sophisticated model of the many interacting processes affecting aerosol in the atmosphere to show that the vertical distribution is typically dominated by only a few of these processes. Constraining these physical processes may help to reduce the large differences between models. However, the important processes are not always the same for different types of aerosol.
N. A. J. Schutgens, D. G. Partridge, and P. Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 1065–1079, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1065-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1065-2016, 2016
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When comparing models against observations, researchers often use long-term averages without due regard for the temporal sampling of the underlying data sets.
We study the errors introduced by this practice and show they are often larger than observational errors and comparable to model errors. We further analyse what causes these errors and suggest best practices for eliminating them.
K. Thayer-Calder, A. Gettelman, C. Craig, S. Goldhaber, P. A. Bogenschutz, C.-C. Chen, H. Morrison, J. Höft, E. Raut, B. M. Griffin, J. K. Weber, V. E. Larson, M. C. Wyant, M. Wang, Z. Guo, and S. J. Ghan
Geosci. Model Dev., 8, 3801–3821, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-3801-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-8-3801-2015, 2015
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This study evaluates a unified cloud parameterization and a Monte Carlo microphysics interface that is implemented in CAM v5.3. We show mean climate and tropical variability results from global simulations. The model has a degradation in precipitation skill but improvements in shortwave cloud forcing, liquid water path, long-wave cloud forcing, precipitable water, and tropical wave simulation. We also show estimation of computational expense and sensitivity to number of subcolumns.
E. Gryspeerdt, P. Stier, B. A. White, and Z. Kipling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 7557–7570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7557-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7557-2015, 2015
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Wet scavenging generates differences between the aerosol properties in clear-sky scenes (observed by satellites) and cloudy scenes, leading to different
aerosol-precipitation relationships in satellite data and global models. Convective systems usually draw in air from clear-sky regions, but global models have difficulty separating this aerosol from the aerosol in cloudy scenes within a model gridbox. This may prevent models from reproducing the observed aerosol-precipitation relationships.
B. H. Samset, G. Myhre, A. Herber, Y. Kondo, S.-M. Li, N. Moteki, M. Koike, N. Oshima, J. P. Schwarz, Y. Balkanski, S. E. Bauer, N. Bellouin, T. K. Berntsen, H. Bian, M. Chin, T. Diehl, R. C. Easter, S. J. Ghan, T. Iversen, A. Kirkevåg, J.-F. Lamarque, G. Lin, X. Liu, J. E. Penner, M. Schulz, Ø. Seland, R. B. Skeie, P. Stier, T. Takemura, K. Tsigaridis, and K. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 12465–12477, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12465-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12465-2014, 2014
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Far from black carbon (BC) emission sources, present climate models are unable to reproduce flight measurements. By comparing recent models with data, we find that the atmospheric lifetime of BC may be overestimated in models. By adjusting modeled BC concentrations to measurements in remote regions - over oceans and at high altitudes - we arrive at a reduced estimate for BC radiative forcing over the industrial era.
N. A. J. Schutgens and P. Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 11657–11686, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11657-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-11657-2014, 2014
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The complexity of the physical and chemical processes effectively turns global aerosol models into black boxes. In an attempt to lift the veil, we present a detailed budget of process contributions (emissions, nucleation, sulfate condensation, coagulation, aging, deposition) in ECHAM5.5-HAM2 across varying length- and timescales. We show a clear hierarchy exists in process importance, that can be used in improving and simplifying the model and for understanding discrepancies with observation.
T. Eidhammer, H. Morrison, A. Bansemer, A. Gettelman, and A. J. Heymsfield
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10103–10118, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10103-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10103-2014, 2014
E. Gryspeerdt, P. Stier, and D. G. Partridge
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9677–9694, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9677-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9677-2014, 2014
D. Barahona, A. Molod, J. Bacmeister, A. Nenes, A. Gettelman, H. Morrison, V. Phillips, and A. Eichmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 7, 1733–1766, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1733-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-7-1733-2014, 2014
R. E. L. West, P. Stier, A. Jones, C. E. Johnson, G. W. Mann, N. Bellouin, D. G. Partridge, and Z. Kipling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6369–6393, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6369-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6369-2014, 2014
G. W. Mann, K. S. Carslaw, C. L. Reddington, K. J. Pringle, M. Schulz, A. Asmi, D. V. Spracklen, D. A. Ridley, M. T. Woodhouse, L. A. Lee, K. Zhang, S. J. Ghan, R. C. Easter, X. Liu, P. Stier, Y. H. Lee, P. J. Adams, H. Tost, J. Lelieveld, S. E. Bauer, K. Tsigaridis, T. P. C. van Noije, A. Strunk, E. Vignati, N. Bellouin, M. Dalvi, C. E. Johnson, T. Bergman, H. Kokkola, K. von Salzen, F. Yu, G. Luo, A. Petzold, J. Heintzenberg, A. Clarke, J. A. Ogren, J. Gras, U. Baltensperger, U. Kaminski, S. G. Jennings, C. D. O'Dowd, R. M. Harrison, D. C. S. Beddows, M. Kulmala, Y. Viisanen, V. Ulevicius, N. Mihalopoulos, V. Zdimal, M. Fiebig, H.-C. Hansson, E. Swietlicki, and J. S. Henzing
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 4679–4713, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4679-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-4679-2014, 2014
C. Jiao, M. G. Flanner, Y. Balkanski, S. E. Bauer, N. Bellouin, T. K. Berntsen, H. Bian, K. S. Carslaw, M. Chin, N. De Luca, T. Diehl, S. J. Ghan, T. Iversen, A. Kirkevåg, D. Koch, X. Liu, G. W. Mann, J. E. Penner, G. Pitari, M. Schulz, Ø. Seland, R. B. Skeie, S. D. Steenrod, P. Stier, T. Takemura, K. Tsigaridis, T. van Noije, Y. Yun, and K. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2399–2417, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2399-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2399-2014, 2014
E. Gryspeerdt, P. Stier, and D. G. Partridge
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 1141–1158, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1141-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1141-2014, 2014
B. S. Grandey, P. Stier, R. G. Grainger, and T. M. Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 10689–10701, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10689-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10689-2013, 2013
A. Gettelman, H. Morrison, C. R. Terai, and R. Wood
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 9855–9867, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9855-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9855-2013, 2013
L. A. Lee, K. J. Pringle, C. L. Reddington, G. W. Mann, P. Stier, D. V. Spracklen, J. R. Pierce, and K. S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 8879–8914, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-8879-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-8879-2013, 2013
Z. Kipling, P. Stier, J. P. Schwarz, A. E. Perring, J. R. Spackman, G. W. Mann, C. E. Johnson, and P. J. Telford
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5969–5986, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5969-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5969-2013, 2013
P. Stier, N. A. J. Schutgens, N. Bellouin, H. Bian, O. Boucher, M. Chin, S. Ghan, N. Huneeus, S. Kinne, G. Lin, X. Ma, G. Myhre, J. E. Penner, C. A. Randles, B. Samset, M. Schulz, T. Takemura, F. Yu, H. Yu, and C. Zhou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3245–3270, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3245-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3245-2013, 2013
B. S. Grandey, P. Stier, and T. M. Wagner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3177–3184, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3177-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3177-2013, 2013
C. A. Randles, S. Kinne, G. Myhre, M. Schulz, P. Stier, J. Fischer, L. Doppler, E. Highwood, C. Ryder, B. Harris, J. Huttunen, Y. Ma, R. T. Pinker, B. Mayer, D. Neubauer, R. Hitzenberger, L. Oreopoulos, D. Lee, G. Pitari, G. Di Genova, J. Quaas, F. G. Rose, S. Kato, S. T. Rumbold, I. Vardavas, N. Hatzianastassiou, C. Matsoukas, H. Yu, F. Zhang, H. Zhang, and P. Lu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2347–2379, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2347-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2347-2013, 2013
B. H. Samset, G. Myhre, M. Schulz, Y. Balkanski, S. Bauer, T. K. Berntsen, H. Bian, N. Bellouin, T. Diehl, R. C. Easter, S. J. Ghan, T. Iversen, S. Kinne, A. Kirkevåg, J.-F. Lamarque, G. Lin, X. Liu, J. E. Penner, Ø. Seland, R. B. Skeie, P. Stier, T. Takemura, K. Tsigaridis, and K. Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2423–2434, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2423-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2423-2013, 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)
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
Accelerated impact of airborne glaciogenic seeding of stratiform clouds by turbulence
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
High-resolution modelling of early contrail evolution from hydrogen-powered aircraft
Investigating the impact of subgrid-scale aerosol-cloud interaction on mesoscale meteorology prediction
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
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
The presence of clouds lowers climate sensitivity in the MPI-ESM1.2 climate model
Diurnal variation in an amplified canopy urban heat island during heat wave periods in the megacity of Beijing: roles of mountain–valley breeze and urban morphology
Diurnal evolution of non-precipitating marine stratocumuli in a large-eddy simulation ensemble
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.
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
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-47, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-47, 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 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 turbulence can accelerate the impact of airborne glaciogenic seeding of stratiform clouds.
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.
Annemarie Lottermoser and Simon Unterstraßer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3859, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3859, 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 six minutes 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.
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.
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.
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.
Andrea Mosso, Thomas Hocking, and Thorsten Mauritsen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12793–12806, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12793-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12793-2024, 2024
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Clouds play a crucial role in the Earth's energy balance, as they can either warm up or cool down the area they cover depending on their height and depth. They are expected to alter their behaviour under climate change, affecting the warming generated by greenhouse gases. This paper proposes a new method to estimate their overall effect on this warming by simulating a climate where clouds are transparent. Results show that with the model used, clouds have a stabilising effect on climate.
Tao Shi, Yuanjian Yang, Ping Qi, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12807–12822, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12807-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12807-2024, 2024
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This paper explored the formation mechanisms of the amplified canopy urban heat island intensity (ΔCUHII) during heat wave (HW) periods in the megacity of Beijing from the perspectives of mountain–valley breeze and urban morphology. During the mountain breeze phase, high-rise buildings with lower sky view factors (SVFs) had a pronounced effect on the ΔCUHII. During the valley breeze phase, high-rise buildings exerted a dual influence on the ΔCUHII.
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.
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Short summary
Aerosols influence cloud and precipitation by modifying cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNCs). We simulate three different types of convective cloud using two different cloud microphysics parameterisations. The simulated cloud and precipitation depends much more strongly on the choice of microphysics scheme than on CDNC. The uncertainty differs between types of convection. Our results highlight a large uncertainty in cloud and precipitation responses to aerosol in current models.
Aerosols influence cloud and precipitation by modifying cloud droplet number concentrations...
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