Articles | Volume 18, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14623-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14623-2018
Research article
 | 
12 Oct 2018
Research article |  | 12 Oct 2018

Time-dependent entrainment of smoke presents an observational challenge for assessing aerosol–cloud interactions over the southeast Atlantic Ocean

Michael S. Diamond, Amie Dobracki, Steffen Freitag, Jennifer D. Small Griswold, Ashley Heikkila, Steven G. Howell, Mary E. Kacarab, James R. Podolske, Pablo E. Saide, and Robert Wood

Data sets

Suite of Aerosol, Cloud, and Related Data Acquired Aboard P3 During ORACLES 2016, Version 1 ORACLES Science Team and NASA Ames Earth Science Project Office https://doi.org/10.5067/Suborbital/ORACLES/P3/2016_V1

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Short summary
Smoke from Africa can mix into clouds over the southeast Atlantic and create new droplets, which brightens the clouds, reflects more sunlight, and thus cools the region. Using aircraft data from a NASA field campaign, we find that cloud properties are correlated with smoke as expected when the smoke is below the clouds but not when smoke is above the clouds because it takes several days for clouds to mix smoke downward. We recommend methods that can track clouds as they move for future studies.
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