Dynamical response of Mediterranean precipitation to greenhouse gases and aerosols

Tang, Tao; Shindell, Drew; Samset, Bjørn H.; Boucher, Oliviér; Forster, Piers M.; Hodnebrog, Øivind; Myhre, Gunnar; Sillmann, Jana; Voulgarakis, Apostolos; Andrews, Timothy; Faluvegi, Gregory; Fläschner, Dagmar; Iversen, Trond; Kasoar, Matthew; Kharin, Viatcheslav; Kirkevåg, Alf; Lamarque, Jean-Francois; Olivié, Dirk; Richardson, Thomas; Stjern, Camilla W.; Takemura, Toshihiko

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8439-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8439-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8439-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 11

Research article

|

15 Jun 2018

Research article |

| 15 Jun 2018

Dynamical response of Mediterranean precipitation to greenhouse gases and aerosols

Tao Tang, Drew Shindell, Bjørn H. Samset, Oliviér Boucher, Piers M. Forster, Øivind Hodnebrog, Gunnar Myhre, Jana Sillmann, Apostolos Voulgarakis, Timothy Andrews, Gregory Faluvegi, Dagmar Fläschner, Trond Iversen, Matthew Kasoar, Viatcheslav Kharin, Alf Kirkevåg, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Dirk Olivié, Thomas Richardson, Camilla W. Stjern, and Toshihiko Takemura

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Final revised paper (published on 15 Jun 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 30 Jan 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of Mediterranean Precipitation Response to Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols', Anonymous Referee #1, 18 Feb 2018
- AC1: 'Reply to comment #1', Tao Tang, 01 May 2018
RC2: 'Review of “Mediterranean Precipitation Response to Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols” by Tang et al', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 Mar 2018
- AC2: 'Reply to comment #2', Tao Tang, 01 May 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Tao Tang on behalf of the Authors (03 May 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (07 May 2018) by Maria Cristina Facchini

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (10 May 2018)

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (16 May 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Re-review of “Mediterranean precipitation response to greenhouse gases and aerosols,” by T. Tang et al., submitted to Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The authors have responded to the referees, but have hardly addressed in the text the main issue, pointed out by both referees, that the models used do not treat aerosol-cloud interactions in any detail, so the results could change significantly if they did.

To remedy this problem, the authors need to (1) reflect more accurately in the text and the title of their manuscript that their study looks at the dynamical rather than microphysical response of aerosols and (2) be more transparent in the text about what aerosol-cloud treatments are and are not included in the models.

First, the title and abstract need to be changed to reflect accurately what the simulation performed is doing. Since aerosol-cloud interactions are either hardly treated or treated weakly in all models, as acknowledge by the authors, the study is really about the dynamical meteorological responses, not the cloud microphysical responses, of different aerosol loadings to precipitation.

Thus, the title should be changed to “Climate model dynamical response to greenhouse gases and aerosols in the Mediterranean” so as not to confuse readers into thinking the study treats microphysical responses, which it does not to any realistic degree.

Similarly, the abstract should be changed to “Here, we compare the modeled dynamical response to individual forcing agents in the Mediterranean using a set of global climate models.”

Please do not state that the models used are “State of the art,” when none of the models used treat aerosol-cloud interactions in nearly the detail as some other models.

Please explain clearly in the abstract that the models do not include detailed aerosol-cloud microphysical interactions and state specifically that inclusion of such processes may change the results.

Please state in the manuscript itself which aerosol-cloud processes are missing.

Please add the table from the response to referees describing the aerosol/cloud activation properties of each model in the manuscript itself.

If these steps are taken, at least it will be clear to readers that the responses examined are not the complete responses and where further work is needed.

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (17 May 2018) by Maria Cristina Facchini

AR by Tao Tang on behalf of the Authors (24 May 2018) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (29 May 2018) by Maria Cristina Facchini

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (04 Jun 2018)

ED: Publish as is (05 Jun 2018) by Maria Cristina Facchini

AR by Tao Tang on behalf of the Authors (05 Jun 2018) Manuscript