Articles | Volume 18, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9681-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9681-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
10 Jul 2018
Research article |
| 10 Jul 2018
| 10 Jul 2018
The influence of dust optical properties on the colour of simulated MSG-SEVIRI Desert Dust infrared imagery
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
Kerstin Schepanski
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
Bernd Heinold
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
Anja Hünerbein
Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany
Helen E. Brindley
Space and Atmospheric Physics Group, and NERC National Centre for Earth Observation, Imperial College London, London, UK
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The Aralkum is a new desert in Central Asia formed by the desiccation of the Aral Sea. This has created a source of atmospheric dust, with implications for the balance of solar and thermal radiation. Simulating these effects using a dust transport model, we find that Aralkum dust adds radiative cooling effects to the surface and atmosphere on average but also adds heating events. Increases in surface pressure due to Aralkum dust strengthen the Siberian High and weaken the summer Asian heat low.
Jamie R. Banks, Anja Hünerbein, Bernd Heinold, Helen E. Brindley, Hartwig Deneke, and Kerstin Schepanski
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Andreas Walbröl, Janosch Michaelis, Sebastian Becker, Henning Dorff, Kerstin Ebell, Irina Gorodetskaya, Bernd Heinold, Benjamin Kirbus, Melanie Lauer, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Johanna Mayer, Hanno Müller, Roel A. J. Neggers, Fiona M. Paulus, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna E. Rückert, Imke Schirmacher, Nils Slättberg, André Ehrlich, Manfred Wendisch, and Susanne Crewell
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Nicole Docter, Anja Hünerbein, David P. Donovan, Rene Preusker, Jürgen Fischer, Jan Fokke Meirink, Piet Stammes, and Michael Eisinger
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Cyrille Flamant, Jean-Pierre Chaboureau, Marco Gaetani, Kerstin Schepanski, and Paola Formenti
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In the austral dry season, the atmospheric composition over southern Africa is dominated by biomass burning aerosols and terrigenous aerosols (so-called mineral dust). This study suggests that the radiative effect of biomass burning aerosols needs to be taken into account to properly forecast dust emissions in Namibia.
Sofía Gómez Maqueo Anaya, Dietrich Althausen, Matthias Faust, Holger Baars, Bernd Heinold, Julian Hofer, Ina Tegen, Albert Ansmann, Ronny Engelmann, Annett Skupin, Birgit Heese, and Kerstin Schepanski
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1271–1295, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1271-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1271-2024, 2024
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Mineral dust aerosol particles vary greatly in their composition depending on source region, which leads to different physicochemical properties. Most atmosphere–aerosol models consider mineral dust aerosols to be compositionally homogeneous, which ultimately increases model uncertainty. Here, we present an approach to explicitly consider the heterogeneity of the mineralogical composition for simulations of the Saharan atmospheric dust cycle with regard to dust transport towards the Atlantic.
Shannon L. Mason, Howard W. Barker, Jason N. S. Cole, Nicole Docter, David P. Donovan, Robin J. Hogan, Anja Hünerbein, Pavlos Kollias, Bernat Puigdomènech Treserras, Zhipeng Qu, Ulla Wandinger, and Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 875–898, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-875-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-875-2024, 2024
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When the EarthCARE mission enters its operational phase, many retrieval data products will be available, which will overlap both in terms of the measurements they use and the geophysical quantities they report. In this pre-launch study, we use simulated EarthCARE scenes to compare the coverage and performance of many data products from the European Space Agency production model, with the intention of better understanding the relation between products and providing a compact guide to users.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Hartwig Deneke, Jan Fokke Meirink, Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 261–276, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-261-2024, 2024
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The ESA cloud, aerosol and radiation mission EarthCARE will provide active profiling and passive imaging measurements from a single satellite platform. The passive multi-spectral imager (MSI) will add information in the across-track direction. We present the cloud optical and physical properties algorithm, which combines the visible to infrared MSI channels to determine the cloud top pressure, optical thickness, particle size and water path.
Hannes Jascha Griesche, Carola Barrientos-Velasco, Hartwig Deneke, Anja Hünerbein, Patric Seifert, and Andreas Macke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 597–612, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-597-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-597-2024, 2024
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The Arctic is strongly affected by climate change and the role of clouds therein is not yet completely understood. Measurements from the Arctic expedition PS106 were used to simulate radiative fluxes with and without clouds at very low altitudes (below 165 m), and their radiative effect was calculated to be 54 Wm-2. The low heights of these clouds make them hard to observe. This study shows the importance of accurate measurements and simulations of clouds and gives suggestions for improvements.
Moritz Haarig, Anja Hünerbein, Ulla Wandinger, Nicole Docter, Sebastian Bley, David Donovan, and Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5953–5975, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5953-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5953-2023, 2023
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The atmospheric lidar (ATLID) and Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) will be carried by the EarthCARE satellite. The synergistic ATLID–MSI Column Products (AM-COL) algorithm described in the paper combines the strengths of ATLID in vertically resolved profiles of aerosol and clouds (e.g., cloud top height) with the strengths of MSI in observing the complete scene beside the satellite track and in extending the lidar information to the swath. The algorithm is validated against simulated test scenes.
Michael Weger and Bernd Heinold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13769–13790, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13769-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13769-2023, 2023
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This study investigates the effects of complex terrain on air pollution trapping using a numerical model which simulates the dispersion of emissions under real meteorological conditions. The additionally simulated aerosol age allows us to distinguish areas that accumulate aerosol over time from areas that are more influenced by fresh emissions. The Dresden Basin, a widened section of the Elbe Valley in eastern Germany, is selected as the target area in a case study to demonstrate the concept.
Suvarna Fadnavis, Bernd Heinold, T. P. Sabin, Anne Kubin, Katty Huang, Alexandru Rap, and Rolf Müller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10439–10449, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10439-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10439-2023, 2023
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The influence of the COVID-19 lockdown on the Himalayas caused increases in snow cover and a decrease in runoff, ultimately leading to an enhanced snow water equivalent. Our findings highlight that, out of the two processes causing a retreat of Himalayan glaciers – (1) slow response to global climate change and (2) fast response to local air pollution – a policy action on the latter is more likely to be within the reach of possible policy action to help billions of people in southern Asia.
Fabian Senf, Bernd Heinold, Anne Kubin, Jason Müller, Roland Schrödner, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8939–8958, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8939-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8939-2023, 2023
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Wildfire smoke is a significant source of airborne atmospheric particles that can absorb sunlight. Extreme fires in particular, such as those during the 2019–2020 Australian wildfire season (Black Summer fires), can considerably affect our climate system. In the present study, we investigate the various effects of Australian smoke using a global climate model to clarify how the Earth's atmosphere, including its circulation systems, adjusted to the extraordinary amount of Australian smoke.
Anja Hünerbein, Sebastian Bley, Stefan Horn, Hartwig Deneke, and Andi Walther
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2821–2836, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2821-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2821-2023, 2023
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The Multi-Spectral Imager (MSI) on board the EarthCARE satellite will provide the information needed for describing the cloud and aerosol properties in the cross-track direction, complementing the measurements from the Cloud Profiling Radar, Atmospheric Lidar and Broad-Band Radiometer. The accurate discrimination between clear and cloudy pixels is an essential first step. Therefore, the cloud mask algorithm provides a cloud flag, cloud phase and cloud type product for the MSI observations.
Bernd Heinold, Holger Baars, Boris Barja, Matthew Christensen, Anne Kubin, Kevin Ohneiser, Kerstin Schepanski, Nick Schutgens, Fabian Senf, Roland Schrödner, Diego Villanueva, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9969–9985, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9969-2022, 2022
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The extreme 2019–2020 Australian wildfires produced massive smoke plumes lofted into the lower stratosphere by pyrocumulonimbus convection. Most climate models do not adequately simulate the injection height of such intense fires. By combining aerosol-climate modeling with prescribed pyroconvective smoke injection and lidar observations, this study shows the importance of the representation of the most extreme wildfire events for estimating the atmospheric energy budget.
Carola Barrientos-Velasco, Hartwig Deneke, Anja Hünerbein, Hannes J. Griesche, Patric Seifert, and Andreas Macke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9313–9348, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9313-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9313-2022, 2022
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This article describes an intercomparison of radiative fluxes and cloud properties from satellite, shipborne observations, and 1D radiative transfer simulations. The analysis focuses on research for PS106 expedition aboard the German research vessel, Polarstern. The results are presented in detailed case studies, time series for the PS106 cruise and extended to the central Arctic region. The findings illustrate the main periods of agreement and discrepancies of both points of view.
Michael Weger, Holger Baars, Henriette Gebauer, Maik Merkel, Alfred Wiedensohler, and Bernd Heinold
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 3315–3345, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3315-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3315-2022, 2022
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Numerical models are an important tool to assess the air quality in cities,
as they can provide near-continouos data in time and space. In this paper,
air pollution for an entire city is simulated at a high spatial resolution of 40 m.
At this spatial scale, the effects of buildings on the atmosphere,
like channeling or blocking of the air flow, are directly represented by diffuse obstacles in the used model CAIRDIO. For model validation, measurements from air-monitoring sites are used.
Maya Ben-Yami, Hilke Oetjen, Helen Brindley, William Cossich, Dulce Lajas, Tiziano Maestri, Davide Magurno, Piera Raspollini, Luca Sgheri, and Laura Warwick
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1755–1777, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1755-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1755-2022, 2022
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Spectral emissivity is a key property of the Earth's surface. Few measurements exist in the far-infrared, despite recent work showing that its contribution is important for accurate modelling of global climate. In preparation for ESA’s EE9 FORUM mission (launch in 2026), this study takes the first steps towards the development of an operational emissivity retrieval for FORUM by investigating the sensitivity of the emissivity product to different physical and operational parameters.
Mark Hennen, Adrian Chappell, Nicholas Webb, Kerstin Schepanski, Matthew Baddock, Frank Eckardt, Tarek Kandakji, Jeff Lee, Mohamad Nobakht, and Johanna von Holdt
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-423, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-423, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
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We use 90,000 dust point source observations (DPS), identified in satellite imagery across 9 global dryland environments to develop a novel dust emission model performance assessment. We evaluate the albedo-based dust emission model (AEM), which agrees with dust emission observations, or lack of emission 71 % of the time. Modelled dust occurs 27 % of the time with no observation, caused mostly by the incorrect assumption of infinite sediment supply and lack of dynamic dust entrainment thresholds.
Adrian Chappell, Nicholas Webb, Mark Hennen, Charles Zender, Philippe Ciais, Kerstin Schepanski, Brandon Edwards, Nancy Ziegler, Sandra Jones, Yves Balkanski, Daniel Tong, John Leys, Stephan Heidenreich, Robert Hynes, David Fuchs, Zhenzhong Zeng, Marie Ekström, Matthew Baddock, Jeffrey Lee, and Tarek Kandakji
Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-337, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-2021-337, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Dust emissions influence global climate while simultaneously reducing the productive potential and resilience of landscapes to climate stressors, together impacting food security and human health. Our results indicate that tuning dust emission models to dust in the atmosphere has hidden dust emission modelling weaknesses and its poor performance. Our new approach will reduce uncertainty and driven by prognostic albedo improve Earth System Models of aerosol effects on future environmental change.
Jonas Witthuhn, Anja Hünerbein, Florian Filipitsch, Stefan Wacker, Stefanie Meilinger, and Hartwig Deneke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14591–14630, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14591-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14591-2021, 2021
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Knowledge of aerosol–radiation interactions is important for understanding the climate system and for the renewable energy sector. Here, two complementary approaches are used to assess the consistency of the underlying aerosol properties and the resulting radiative effect in clear-sky conditions over Germany in 2015. An approach based on clear-sky models and broadband irradiance observations is contrasted to the use of explicit radiative transfer simulations using CAMS reanalysis data.
Tobias Peter Bauer, Peter Holtermann, Bernd Heinold, Hagen Radtke, Oswald Knoth, and Knut Klingbeil
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 4843–4863, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4843-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-4843-2021, 2021
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We present the coupled atmosphere–ocean model system ICONGETM. The added value and potential of using the latest coupling technologies are discussed in detail. An exchange grid handles the different coastlines from the unstructured atmosphere and the structured ocean grids. Due to a high level of automated processing, ICONGETM requires only minimal user input. The application to a coastal upwelling scenario demonstrates significantly improved model results compared to uncoupled simulations.
Hartwig Deneke, Carola Barrientos-Velasco, Sebastian Bley, Anja Hünerbein, Stephan Lenk, Andreas Macke, Jan Fokke Meirink, Marion Schroedter-Homscheidt, Fabian Senf, Ping Wang, Frank Werner, and Jonas Witthuhn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5107–5126, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5107-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5107-2021, 2021
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The SEVIRI instrument flown on the European geostationary Meteosat satellites acquires multi-spectral images at a relatively coarse pixel resolution of 3 × 3 km2, but it also has a broadband high-resolution visible channel with 1 × 1 km2 spatial resolution. In this study, the modification of an existing cloud property and solar irradiance retrieval to use this channel to improve the spatial resolution of its output products as well as the resulting benefits for applications are described.
Matthias Faust, Ralf Wolke, Steffen Münch, Roger Funk, and Kerstin Schepanski
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 2205–2220, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-2205-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-2205-2021, 2021
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Trajectory dispersion models are powerful and intuitive tools for tracing air pollution through the atmosphere. But the turbulent nature of the atmospheric boundary layer makes it challenging to provide accurate predictions near the surface. To overcome this, we propose an approach using wind and turbulence information at high temporal resolution. Finally, we demonstrate the strength of our approach in a case study on dust emissions from agriculture.
Michael Weger, Oswald Knoth, and Bernd Heinold
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 1469–1492, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-1469-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-1469-2021, 2021
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A new numerical air-quality transport model for cities is presented, in which buildings are described diffusively. The used diffusive-obstacles approach helps to reduce the computational costs for high-resolution simulations as the grid spacing can be more coarse than in traditional approaches. The research which led to this model development was primarily motivated by the need for a computationally feasible downscaling tool for urban wind and pollution fields from meteorological model output.
Sophie Vandenbussche, Sieglinde Callewaert, Kerstin Schepanski, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15127–15146, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15127-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15127-2020, 2020
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Mineral dust aerosols blown mostly from desert areas are a key player in the climate system. We use a new desert dust aerosol low-altitude concentration data set as well as additional information on the surface state and low-altitude winds to infer desert dust emission and source maps over North Africa. With 9 years of data, we observe a full seasonal cycle of dust emissions, differentiating morning and afternoon/evening emissions and providing a first glance at long-term changes.
Richard J. Bantges, Helen E. Brindley, Jonathan E. Murray, Alan E. Last, Jacqueline E. Russell, Cathryn Fox, Stuart Fox, Chawn Harlow, Sebastian J. O'Shea, Keith N. Bower, Bryan A. Baum, Ping Yang, Hilke Oetjen, and Juliet C. Pickering
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12889–12903, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12889-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12889-2020, 2020
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Understanding how ice clouds influence the Earth's energy balance remains a key challenge for predicting the future climate. These clouds are ubiquitous and are composed of ice crystals that have complex shapes that are incredibly difficult to model. This work exploits new measurements of the Earth's emitted thermal energy made from instruments flown on board an aircraft to test how well the latest ice cloud models can represent these clouds. Results indicate further developments are required.
Christof G. Beer, Johannes Hendricks, Mattia Righi, Bernd Heinold, Ina Tegen, Silke Groß, Daniel Sauer, Adrian Walser, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 4287–4303, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4287-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-4287-2020, 2020
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Mineral dust aerosol plays an important role in the climate system. Previously, dust emissions have often been represented in global models by prescribed monthly-mean emission fields representative of a specific year. We now apply an online calculation of wind-driven dust emissions. This results in an improved agreement with observations, due to a better representation of the highly variable dust emissions. Increasing the model resolution led to an additional performance gain.
Christa Genz, Roland Schrödner, Bernd Heinold, Silvia Henning, Holger Baars, Gerald Spindler, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8787–8806, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8787-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8787-2020, 2020
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Atmospheric aerosols are the precondition for the formation of cloud droplets and thus have a large influence on cloud properties. Concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei of the period with highest aerosol concentrations over central Europe are uncertain. In this work, modeled estimates of CCN from today and the mid-1980s are compared to available in situ and remote sensing observations. A scaling factor between today and the 1980s for the CCN concentrations has been derived.
Tobias Donth, Evelyn Jäkel, André Ehrlich, Bernd Heinold, Jacob Schacht, Andreas Herber, Marco Zanatta, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8139–8156, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8139-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8139-2020, 2020
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Solar radiative effects of Arctic black carbon (BC) particles (suspended in the atmosphere and in the surface snowpack) were quantified under cloudless and cloudy conditions. An atmospheric and a snow radiative transfer model were coupled to account for radiative interactions between both compartments. It was found that (i) the warming effect of BC in the snowpack overcompensates for the atmospheric BC cooling effect, and (ii) clouds tend to reduce the atmospheric BC cooling and snow BC warming.
Alma Hodzic, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Peter R. Colarco, Douglas A. Day, Karl D. Froyd, Bernd Heinold, Duseong S. Jo, Joseph M. Katich, John K. Kodros, Benjamin A. Nault, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Eric Ray, Jacob Schacht, Gregory P. Schill, Jason C. Schroder, Joshua P. Schwarz, Donna T. Sueper, Ina Tegen, Simone Tilmes, Kostas Tsigaridis, Pengfei Yu, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4607–4635, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4607-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4607-2020, 2020
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Organic aerosol (OA) is a key source of uncertainty in aerosol climate effects. We present the first pole-to-pole OA characterization during the NASA Atmospheric Tomography aircraft mission. OA has a strong seasonal and zonal variability, with the highest levels in summer and over fire-influenced regions and the lowest ones in the southern high latitudes. We show that global models predict the OA distribution well but not the relative contribution of OA emissions vs. chemical production.
Mattia Righi, Johannes Hendricks, Ulrike Lohmann, Christof Gerhard Beer, Valerian Hahn, Bernd Heinold, Romy Heller, Martina Krämer, Michael Ponater, Christian Rolf, Ina Tegen, and Christiane Voigt
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 1635–1661, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1635-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1635-2020, 2020
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A new cloud microphysical scheme is implemented in the global EMAC-MADE3 aerosol model and evaluated. The new scheme features a detailed parameterization for aerosol-driven ice formation in cirrus clouds, accounting for the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous ice formation processes. The comparison against satellite data and in situ measurements shows that the model performance is in line with similar global coupled models featuring ice cloud parameterizations.
Jonas Witthuhn, Anja Hünerbein, and Hartwig Deneke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 1387–1412, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1387-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1387-2020, 2020
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Reliable reference measurements over ocean are essential for the evaluation and improvement of satellite- and model-based aerosol datasets. Here, a uniqe set of shipborne reference aerosol products obtained from Microtops sunphotometer and GUVis-3511 shadowband radiometer observations are compared to aerosol products from the MODIS and SEVIRI satellite sensors, and the CAMS reanalysis over the Atlantic Ocean. The present evaluation highlights the importance of an aerosol-type based analysis.
Diego Villanueva, Bernd Heinold, Patric Seifert, Hartwig Deneke, Martin Radenz, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2177–2199, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2177-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2177-2020, 2020
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Spaceborne retrievals of cloud phase were analysed together with an atmospheric composition model to assess the global frequency of ice and liquid clouds. This analysis showed that at equal temperature the average occurrence of ice clouds increases for higher dust mixing ratios on a day-to-day basis in the middle and high latitudes. This indicates that mineral dust may have a strong impact on the occurrence of ice clouds even in remote areas.
Jacob Schacht, Bernd Heinold, Johannes Quaas, John Backman, Ribu Cherian, Andre Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Wan Ting Katty Huang, Yutaka Kondo, Andreas Massling, P. R. Sinha, Bernadett Weinzierl, Marco Zanatta, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11159–11183, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11159-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11159-2019, 2019
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The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of Earth. Black carbon (BC) aerosol contributes to this Arctic amplification by direct and indirect aerosol radiative effects while distributed in air or deposited on snow and ice. The aerosol-climate model ECHAM-HAM is used to estimate direct aerosol radiative effect (DRE). Airborne and near-surface BC measurements are used to evaluate the model and give an uncertainty range for the burden and DRE of Arctic BC caused by different emission inventories.
Christophe Bellisario, Helen E. Brindley, Simon F. B. Tett, Rolando Rizzi, Gianluca Di Natale, Luca Palchetti, and Giovanni Bianchini
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 7927–7937, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7927-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7927-2019, 2019
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We explore the possibility of inferring far-infrared downwelling radiances from mid-infrared observations to better constrain radiation schemes in climate models. Our results imply that while it is feasible to use this type of approach, the quality of the extension will be strongly dependent on the noise characteristics of the observations and on the accurate characterisation of the atmospheric state.
Jamie R. Banks, Anja Hünerbein, Bernd Heinold, Helen E. Brindley, Hartwig Deneke, and Kerstin Schepanski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6893–6911, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6893-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6893-2019, 2019
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Saharan dust storms may be observed over the desert using false-colour infrared satellite imagery; in one widely used scheme dust displays characteristic pink colours. Simulating satellite imagery using a dust transport model, we confirm that water vapour is a major control on the apparent colour of dust in the false-colour imagery and that dust displays its deepest colours when it is at a high altitude and when the atmosphere is dry. Water vapour can obscure the presence of low-altitude dust.
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.
Heike Wex, Lin Huang, Wendy Zhang, Hayley Hung, Rita Traversi, Silvia Becagli, Rebecca J. Sheesley, Claire E. Moffett, Tate E. Barrett, Rossana Bossi, Henrik Skov, Anja Hünerbein, Jasmin Lubitz, Mareike Löffler, Olivia Linke, Markus Hartmann, Paul Herenz, and Frank Stratmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5293–5311, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5293-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5293-2019, 2019
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We found an annual cycle for ice-nucleating particles in the Arctic. These particles are important for Arctic clouds, as they can change the lifetime of clouds. We suggest that higher concentrations of these particles in summertime originate from the Arctic biosphere (both marine and terrestrial). With a warming Arctic, these concentrations may increase further, influencing aerosol–cloud interactions and therewith the observed strong warming of the Arctic.
Erlend M. Knudsen, Bernd Heinold, Sandro Dahlke, Heiko Bozem, Susanne Crewell, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Georg Heygster, Daniel Kunkel, Marion Maturilli, Mario Mech, Carolina Viceto, Annette Rinke, Holger Schmithüsen, André Ehrlich, Andreas Macke, Christof Lüpkes, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17995–18022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17995-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17995-2018, 2018
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The paper describes the synoptic development during the ACLOUD/PASCAL airborne and ship-based field campaign near Svalbard in spring 2017. This development is presented using near-surface and upperair meteorological observations, satellite, and model data. We first present time series of these data, from which we identify and characterize three key periods. Finally, we put our observations in historical and regional contexts and compare our findings to other Arctic field campaigns.
Michael Weger, Bernd Heinold, Christa Engler, Ulrich Schumann, Axel Seifert, Romy Fößig, Christiane Voigt, Holger Baars, Ulrich Blahak, Stephan Borrmann, Corinna Hoose, Stefan Kaufmann, Martina Krämer, Patric Seifert, Fabian Senf, Johannes Schneider, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17545–17572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17545-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17545-2018, 2018
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The impact of desert dust on cloud formation is investigated for a major Saharan dust event over Europe by interactive regional dust modeling. Dust particles are very efficient ice-nucleating particles promoting the formation of ice crystals in clouds. The simulations show that the observed extensive cirrus development was likely related to the above-average dust load. The interactive dust–cloud feedback in the model significantly improves the agreement with aircraft and satellite observations.
Diego Villanueva, Bernd Heinold, Patric Seifert, Hartwig Deneke, Martin Radenz, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-1074, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-1074, 2018
Revised manuscript not accepted
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Two different satellite products were analysed together with an atmospheric composition model to assess the global frequency of ice and liquid stratiform clouds. This analysis showed that at equal temperature the average occurrence of fully glaciated stratiform clouds was found to increase for higher dust mixing-ratios on a day-to-day basis in the mid- and high latitudes. This indicates that mineral dust may have a strong impact in the occurrence of ice clouds even in remote areas.
Robert Wagner, Michael Jähn, and Kerstin Schepanski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11863–11884, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11863-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11863-2018, 2018
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Wildfires can disturb the lower tropospheric wind conditions and are able to mobilize and inject mineral dust particles into the atmosphere. This study presents a conceptual model of fire-driven dust emissions using large-eddy simulations and evaluates how efficiently wildfires are able to modify the near-surface winds. The results show that typical threshold velocities necessary for dust emission are frequently exceeded and wildfires should be considered a source of airborne mineral dust.
Jake J. Gristey, J. Christine Chiu, Robert J. Gurney, Cyril J. Morcrette, Peter G. Hill, Jacqueline E. Russell, and Helen E. Brindley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5129–5145, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5129-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5129-2018, 2018
Anna Mackie, Paul I. Palmer, and Helen Brindley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 15095–15119, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15095-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15095-2017, 2017
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We compare the balance of solar and thermal radiation at the surface and the top of the atmosphere from a forecasting model to observations at a site in Niamey, Niger, in the Sahel. To interpret the energy budgets we examine other factors, such as cloud properties, water vapour and aerosols, which we use to understand the differences between the observation and model. We find that some differences are linked to lack of ice in clouds, underestimated aerosol loading and surface temperatures.
Julian Hofer, Dietrich Althausen, Sabur F. Abdullaev, Abduvosit N. Makhmudov, Bakhron I. Nazarov, Georg Schettler, Ronny Engelmann, Holger Baars, K. Wadinga Fomba, Konrad Müller, Bernd Heinold, Konrad Kandler, and Albert Ansmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14559–14577, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14559-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14559-2017, 2017
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The Central Asian Dust Experiment provides unprecedented data on vertically resolved aerosol optical properties over Central Asia from continuous 18-month polarization Raman lidar observations in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Central Asia is affected by climate change (e.g. glacier retreat) but in a large part missing vertically resolved aerosol measurements, which would help to better understand transport of dust and pollution aerosol across Central Asia and their influence on climate and health.
Kerstin Schepanski, Bernd Heinold, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10223–10243, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10223-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10223-2017, 2017
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This study illustrates the complexity of the interaction among the three major circulation regimes stimulating the North African dust outflow: harmattan, Saharan heat low, and monsoon circulation. We analyse fields from model simulations and satellite observations in concert in order to link atmospheric circulation and dust source activation as well as to characterize their impact on the variability of the dust outflow towards the Atlantic.
Sudhakar Dipu, Johannes Quaas, Ralf Wolke, Jens Stoll, Andreas Mühlbauer, Odran Sourdeval, Marc Salzmann, Bernd Heinold, and Ina Tegen
Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 2231–2246, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2231-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2231-2017, 2017
Jamie R. Banks, Helen E. Brindley, Georgiy Stenchikov, and Kerstin Schepanski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3987–4003, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3987-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3987-2017, 2017
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From an 11-year analysis of satellite measurements of atmospheric dust presence over the Red Sea, it is clear that there is a strong north–south gradient in dust activity and a pronounced interannual variability in this activity. Analysing two commonly used satellite retrieval methods to quantify dust presence, we find that under the most extreme dust storm conditions the measured dust optical thicknesses can diverge strongly between the two methods.
Kerstin Schepanski, Marc Mallet, Bernd Heinold, and Max Ulrich
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 14147–14168, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14147-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14147-2016, 2016
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EOF analysis is used to link the north African atmospheric dust cycle, particularly active dust source regions, dust emission fluxes, dust transport pathways towards the Mediterranean Sea and Europe as well as dust deposition rates with atmospheric circulation regimes, such as position and strength of the subtropical ridge and the Saharan heat low.
María José Granados-Muñoz, Francisco Navas-Guzmán, Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado, Juan Antonio Bravo-Aranda, Ioannis Binietoglou, Sergio Nepomuceno Pereira, Sara Basart, José María Baldasano, Livio Belegante, Anatoli Chaikovsky, Adolfo Comerón, Giuseppe D'Amico, Oleg Dubovik, Luka Ilic, Panos Kokkalis, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Slobodan Nickovic, Doina Nicolae, Francisco José Olmo, Alexander Papayannis, Gelsomina Pappalardo, Alejandro Rodríguez, Kerstin Schepanski, Michaël Sicard, Ana Vukovic, Ulla Wandinger, François Dulac, and Lucas Alados-Arboledas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 7043–7066, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7043-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7043-2016, 2016
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This study provides a detailed overview of the Mediterranean region regarding aerosol microphysical properties during the ChArMEx/EMEP campaign in July 2012. An in-depth analysis of the horizontal, vertical, and temporal dimensions is performed using LIRIC, proving the algorithm's ability in automated retrieval of microphysical property profiles within a network. A validation of four dust models is included, obtaining fair good agreement, especially for the vertical distribution of the aerosol.
Jean-Pierre Chaboureau, Cyrille Flamant, Thibaut Dauhut, Cécile Kocha, Jean-Philippe Lafore, Chistophe Lavaysse, Fabien Marnas, Mohamed Mokhtari, Jacques Pelon, Irene Reinares Martínez, Kerstin Schepanski, and Pierre Tulet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 6977–6995, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6977-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6977-2016, 2016
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The Fennec field campaign conducted in June 2011 led to the first observational data set ever obtained that documents the Saharan atmospheric boundary layer under the influence of the heat low. In addition to the aircraft operation, four dust forecasts were run at low and high resolutions with convection-parameterizing and convection-permitting models, respectively. The unique airborne and ground-based data sets allowed the first ever intercomparison of dust forecasts over the western Sahara.
John H. Marsham, Douglas J. Parker, Martin C. Todd, Jamie R. Banks, Helen E. Brindley, Luis Garcia-Carreras, Alexander J. Roberts, and Claire L. Ryder
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3563–3575, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3563-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3563-2016, 2016
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The roles of water, clouds and airborne dust in controlling the heating of the Sahara are uncertain, which has major implications for the West African monsoon. Observations from the Fennec project, with satellite data, show that total atmospheric water content provides a far stronger control on total radiative heating than dust does, but dust provides the stronger control on surface heating. Therefore major heating errors in global models are likely due to known errors in water transport.
Bernd Heinold, Ina Tegen, Kerstin Schepanski, and Jamie R. Banks
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 765–777, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-765-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-765-2016, 2016
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In the aerosol-climate model ECHAM6-HAM2, dust source activation (DSA) observations from MSG satellite are used to replace the current Saharan source map. The new setup provides more realistically distributed, up to 20 % higher annual Saharan emissions. Modeled dust AOT is partly improved in the Sahara-Sahel region, as is the spatial variability. As a comparison to sub-daily MSG DSAs and a regional model shows, the representation of meteorological drivers of dust uplift remains a critical issue.
M. Mallet, F. Dulac, P. Formenti, P. Nabat, J. Sciare, G. Roberts, J. Pelon, G. Ancellet, D. Tanré, F. Parol, C. Denjean, G. Brogniez, A. di Sarra, L. Alados-Arboledas, J. Arndt, F. Auriol, L. Blarel, T. Bourrianne, P. Chazette, S. Chevaillier, M. Claeys, B. D'Anna, Y. Derimian, K. Desboeufs, T. Di Iorio, J.-F. Doussin, P. Durand, A. Féron, E. Freney, C. Gaimoz, P. Goloub, J. L. Gómez-Amo, M. J. Granados-Muñoz, N. Grand, E. Hamonou, I. Jankowiak, M. Jeannot, J.-F. Léon, M. Maillé, S. Mailler, D. Meloni, L. Menut, G. Momboisse, J. Nicolas, T. Podvin, V. Pont, G. Rea, J.-B. Renard, L. Roblou, K. Schepanski, A. Schwarzenboeck, K. Sellegri, M. Sicard, F. Solmon, S. Somot, B Torres, J. Totems, S. Triquet, N. Verdier, C. Verwaerde, F. Waquet, J. Wenger, and P. Zapf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 455–504, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-455-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-455-2016, 2016
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The aim of this article is to present an experimental campaign over the Mediterranean focused on aerosol-radiation measurements and modeling. Results indicate an important atmospheric loading associated with a moderate absorbing ability of mineral dust. Observations suggest a complex vertical structure and size distributions characterized by large aerosols within dust plumes. The radiative effect is highly variable, with negative forcing over the Mediterranean and positive over northern Africa.
S. Groß, V. Freudenthaler, K. Schepanski, C. Toledano, A. Schäfler, A. Ansmann, and B. Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 11067–11080, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11067-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11067-2015, 2015
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In June and July 2013 dual-wavelength lidar measurements were performed in Barbados to study long-range transported Saharan dust across the Atlantic Ocean and investigate transport-induced changes. The focus of our measurements is the intensive optical properties, the lidar ratio and the particle linear depolarization ratio. While the lidar ratio shows no differences compared to the values of fresh Saharan dust, the particle linear depolarization ratio shows slight differences.
S. Osipov, G. Stenchikov, H. Brindley, and J. Banks
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 9537–9553, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-9537-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-9537-2015, 2015
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The radiative effect of dust over the Arabian Peninsula for different surfaces and for a range of optical depths is calculated and tested using satellite and ground-based observations.
C. L. Ryder, J. B. McQuaid, C. Flamant, P. D. Rosenberg, R. Washington, H. E. Brindley, E. J. Highwood, J. H. Marsham, D. J. Parker, M. C. Todd, J. R. Banks, J. K. Brooke, S. Engelstaedter, V. Estelles, P. Formenti, L. Garcia-Carreras, C. Kocha, F. Marenco, H. Sodemann, C. J. T. Allen, A. Bourdon, M. Bart, C. Cavazos-Guerra, S. Chevaillier, J. Crosier, E. Darbyshire, A. R. Dean, J. R. Dorsey, J. Kent, D. O'Sullivan, K. Schepanski, K. Szpek, J. Trembath, and A. Woolley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 8479–8520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8479-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8479-2015, 2015
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Measurements of the Saharan atmosphere and of atmospheric mineral dust are lacking but are vital to our understanding of the climate of this region and their impacts further afield. Novel observations were made by the Fennec climate programme during June 2011 and 2012 using ground-based, remote sensing and airborne platforms. Here we describe the airborne observations and the contributions they have made to furthering our understanding of the Saharan climate system.
J. Slobodda, A. Hünerbein, R. Lindstrot, R. Preusker, K. Ebell, and J. Fischer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 567–578, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-567-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-567-2015, 2015
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In this paper the representativeness of ground-based cloud observatories and their comparability to satellite data and weather prediction models is examined. It is performed by analysing correlation of time series of SEVIRI pixels. The representativeness strongly depends on the used channels and ranges between 1km and over 20km.
S. Fiedler, K. Schepanski, P. Knippertz, B. Heinold, and I. Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8983–9000, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8983-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8983-2014, 2014
N. Niedermeier, A. Held, T. Müller, B. Heinold, K. Schepanski, I. Tegen, K. Kandler, M. Ebert, S. Weinbruch, K. Read, J. Lee, K. W. Fomba, K. Müller, H. Herrmann, and A. Wiedensohler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2245–2266, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2245-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2245-2014, 2014
I. Tegen, K. Schepanski, and B. Heinold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 2381–2390, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2381-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-2381-2013, 2013
C. L. Ryder, E. J. Highwood, P. D. Rosenberg, J. Trembath, J. K. Brooke, M. Bart, A. Dean, J. Crosier, J. Dorsey, H. Brindley, J. Banks, J. H. Marsham, J. B. McQuaid, H. Sodemann, and R. Washington
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 303–325, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-303-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-303-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Regional variability of aerosol impacts on clouds and radiation in global kilometer-scale simulations
A novel method to quantify the uncertainty contribution of aerosol–radiation interaction factors
Exploring the aerosol activation properties in coastal shallow convection using cloud- and particle-resolving models
Machine-learning-assisted inference of the particle charge fraction and the ion-induced nucleation rates during new particle formation events
Modeling CMAQ dry deposition treatment over the western Pacific: a distinct characteristic of mineral dust and anthropogenic aerosols
Impact of post-monsoon crop residue burning on PM2.5 over northern India: optimizing emissions using a high-density in situ surface observation network
Modeling simulation of aerosol light absorption over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region: the impact of mixing state and aging processes
An investigation of the impact of Canadian wildfires on US air quality using model, satellite, and ground measurements
How to trace the origins of short-lived atmospheric species: an Arctic example
Dust-producing weather patterns of the North American Great Plains
High-resolution air quality maps for Bucharest using a mixed-effects modeling framework
Interdecadal shift in the impact of winter land-sea thermal contrasts on following spring transcontinental dust transport pathways in North Africa
Anthropogenic and Natural Causes for the Interannual Variation of PM2.5 in East Asia During Summer Monsoon Periods From 2008 to 2018
Construction and application of a pollen emissions model based on phenology and random forests
An uncertain future for the climate and health impacts of anthropogenic aerosols in Africa
The impact of uncertainty in black carbon's refractive index on simulated optical depth and radiative forcing
Gas-phase collision rate enhancement factors for acid-base clusters up to 2 nm in diameter from atomistic simulation and the interacting hard sphere model
How well are aerosol–cloud interactions represented in climate models? – Part 2: Isolating the aerosol impact on clouds following the 2014–15 Holuhraun eruption
Characterization of brown carbon absorption in different European environments through source contribution analysis
Accounting for the black carbon aging process in a two-way coupled meteorology–air quality model
The effectiveness of solar radiation management using fine sea spray across multiple climatic regions
A global dust emission dataset for estimating dust radiative forcings in climate models
Tropospheric aerosols over the western North Atlantic Ocean during the winter and summer deployments of ACTIVATE 2020: life cycle, transport, and distribution
Spatial and temporal evolution of future atmospheric reactive nitrogen deposition in China under different climate change mitigation strategies
Steady-state mixing state of black carbon aerosols from a particle-resolved model
Direct radiative forcing of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosol and the influencing factors over China
Distinctive dust weather intensities in North China resulted from two types of atmospheric circulation anomalies
Biomass burning emission analysis based on MODIS aerosol optical depth and AeroCom multi-model simulations: implications for model constraints and emission inventories
The effect of organic nucleation on the indirect radiative forcing with a semi-explicit chemical mechanism for highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOMs)
Quasi-weekly oscillation of regional PM2.5 transport over China driven by the synoptic-scale disturbance of the East Asian winter monsoon circulation
Solar radiation estimation in West Africa: impact of dust conditions during the 2021 dry season
Modeling urban pollutant transport at multi-resolutions: Impacts of turbulent mixing
Homogeneous ice nucleation in adsorbed water films: A theoretical approach
Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model
The role of interfacial tension in the size-dependent phase separation of atmospheric aerosol particles
Saharan dust linked to European hail events
Impact of Topographic Wind Conditions on Dust Particle Size Distribution: Insights from a Regional Dust Reanalysis Dataset
Uncovering the Impact of Urban Functional Zones on Air Quality in China
Seasonal differences in observed versus modeled new particle formation over boreal regions
Warming effects of reduced sulfur emissions from shipping
The key role of atmospheric absorption in the Asian summer monsoon response to dust emissions in CMIP6 models
Multi-model effective radiative forcing of the 2020 sulfur cap for shipping
Representation of iron aerosol size distributions of anthropogenic emissions is critical in evaluating atmospheric soluble iron input to the ocean
Radiative and climate effects of aerosol scattering in long-wave radiation based on global climate modeling
Revealing dominant patterns of aerosol regimes in the lower troposphere and their evolution from preindustrial times to the future in global climate model simulations
Improving estimation of a record-breaking east Asian dust storm emission with lagged aerosol Ångström exponent observations
Impact of biomass burning aerosols (BBA) on the tropical African climate in an ocean–atmosphere–aerosol coupled climate model
Retrieval of refractive index and water content for the coating materials of aged black carbon aerosol based on optical properties: a theoretical analysis
Strong inter-model differences and biases in CMIP6 simulations of PM2.5, aerosol optical depth, and precipitation over Africa
Predicting hygroscopic growth of organosulfur aerosol particles using COSMOtherm
Ross J. Herbert, Andrew I. L. Williams, Philipp Weiss, Duncan Watson-Parris, Elisabeth Dingley, Daniel Klocke, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7789–7814, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7789-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7789-2025, 2025
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Clouds exist at scales that climate models struggle to represent, limiting our knowledge of how climate change may impact clouds. Here we use a new kilometer-scale global model representing an important step towards the necessary scale. We focus on how aerosol particles modify clouds, radiation, and precipitation. We find the magnitude and manner of responses tend to vary from region to region, highlighting the potential of global kilometer-scale simulations and a need to represent aerosols in climate models.
Bishuo He and Chunsheng Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7765–7776, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7765-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7765-2025, 2025
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Factor uncertainty analysis helps us understand the impacts of factors on complex systems. Traditional methods have many limitations. This study introduces a new method to measure how each factor contributes to uncertainty. It gains insights into the role of each variable and works for all multi-factor systems. As an application, we analyzed how aerosols affect solar radiation and identified the key factors. These analyses can improve our understanding of the role of aerosols in climate change.
Ge Yu, Yueya Wang, Zhe Wang, and Xiaoming Shi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7527–7542, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7527-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7527-2025, 2025
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Studying the cloud-forming capacity of aerosols is crucial in climate research. The PartMC model can provide detailed particle information and help these studies. This model is integrated with the ideal meteorological Cloud Model 1 (CM1) to simulate the aerosols at cloud-forming locations. Significant changes are revealed in the hygroscopicity distribution of aerosols within ascending air parcels. Additionally, different ascent times also affect aerosol aging processes.
Pan Wang, Yue Zhao, Jiandong Wang, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Jingkun Jiang, and Chenxi Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7431–7446, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7431-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7431-2025, 2025
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We developed a numerical model to investigate the evolution of the charge state of newly formed atmospheric particles. Based on the simulation results, we successfully employed neural networks to predict particle charge states and estimate ion-induced nucleation rates. This study provides new insights into the dynamics of particle charging and introduces advanced methods for evaluating ion-induced nucleation in atmospheric research.
Steven Soon-Kai Kong, Joshua S. Fu, Neng-Huei Lin, Guey-Rong Sheu, and Wei-Syun Huang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7245–7268, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7245-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7245-2025, 2025
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The accuracy of the chemical transport model, a key focus of our research, is strongly dependent on the dry deposition parameterization. Our findings show that the refined CMAQ dust model correlated well with ground-based and high-altitude in situ measurements by implementing the suggested dry deposition schemes. Furthermore, we reveal the mixing state of two types of aerosols at the upper level, a finding supported by both the optimized model and measurements.
Mizuo Kajino, Kentaro Ishijima, Joseph Ching, Kazuyo Yamaji, Rio Ishikawa, Tomoki Kajikawa, Tanbir Singh, Tomoki Nakayama, Yutaka Matsumi, Koyo Kojima, Taisei Machida, Takashi Maki, Prabir K. Patra, and Sachiko Hayashida
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7137–7160, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7137-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7137-2025, 2025
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Air pollution in Delhi during the post-monsoon period is severe, and association with intensive crop residue burning (CRB) over Punjab state has attracted attention. However, the relationship has been unclear as the CRB emissions conventionally derived from satellites were underestimated due to clouds or thick smoke/haze over the region. We evaluated the impact of CRB on PM2.5 to be about 50 %, based on a combination of numerical modeling and an observation network using low-cost sensors we installed.
Huiyun Du, Jie Li, Xueshun Chen, Gabriele Curci, Fangqun Yu, Yele Sun, Xu Dao, Song Guo, Zhe Wang, Wenyi Yang, Lianfang Wei, and Zifa Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5665–5681, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5665-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5665-2025, 2025
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Inadequate consideration of mixing states and coatings on black carbon (BC) hinders aerosol radiation forcing quantification. Core–shell mixing aligns well with observations, but partial internal mixing is a more realistic representation. We used a microphysics module to determine the fraction of embedded BC and coating aerosols, constraining the mixing state. This reduced absorption enhancement by 30 %–43 % in northern China, offering insights into BC's radiative effects.
Zhixin Xue, Nair Udaysankar, and Sundar A. Christopher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5497–5517, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5497-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5497-2025, 2025
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Canadian wildfires in August 2018 significantly increased surface air pollution across the United States (US) – by up to 69 % in some areas. Using model, satellite, and ground measurements, the study highlights how weather patterns and long-range smoke transport drive pollution. The northwestern US was most affected by Canadian wildfire smoke, while the northeastern US experienced the least impact. These findings indicate the growing concern that wildfire smoke poses to air quality across the US.
Anderson Da Silva, Louis Marelle, Jean-Christophe Raut, Yvette Gramlich, Karolina Siegel, Sophie L. Haslett, Claudia Mohr, and Jennie L. Thomas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5331–5354, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5331-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5331-2025, 2025
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Particle sources in polar climates are unclear, affecting climate representation in models. This study introduces an evaluated method for tracking particles with backward modeling. Tests on simulated particles allowed us to show that traditional detection methods often misidentify sources. An improved method that accurately traces the origins of aerosol particles in the Arctic is presented. The study recommends using this enhanced method for better source identification of atmospheric species.
Stuart Evans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4833–4845, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4833-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4833-2025, 2025
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This study of the North American Great Plains identifies the various weather patterns responsible for blowing dust in all parts of the region using a weather pattern classification. In the southwestern plains passing cold fronts are the primary cause of dust; in the understudied northern plains, summertime patterns and southerly pre-frontal winds are most important in the west and east, respectively. These results are valuable to understanding and forecasting dust in this complex source region.
Camelia Talianu, Jeni Vasilescu, Doina Nicolae, Alexandru Ilie, Andrei Dandocsi, Anca Nemuc, and Livio Belegante
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4639–4654, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4639-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4639-2025, 2025
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For Bucharest, Romania's capital, mobile measurements during two intensive campaigns and mixed-effect LUR (land-use regression) models to derive seasonal maps of near-surface PM10, NO2 and UFPs (ultrafine particles) have successfully been used. The model's performance was evaluated, demonstrating its potential for high-resolution mapping in other cities with well-characterized urban structures and diverse in situ monitoring stations.
Qi Wen, Yan Li, Mengying Du, Wenjun Song, Linbo Wei, Zhilan Wang, and Xu Li
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-826, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-826, 2025
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We find that, through an interdecadal phase-locking effect of sea-land thermal forcing-North Atlantic Oscillation-Westerly Jet coupling, springtime dust from North Africa is more likely to be transported eastwards (extending into North America) after the late 1990s, whereas before that time westward transport paths for dust were more frequent. Subject to thermal forcing, wind speed and drought contribute to dust emissions in the two periods, respectively.
Danyang Ma, Min Xie, Huan He, Tijian Wang, Mengzhu Xi, Lingyun Feng, Shuxian Zhang, and Shitong Chen
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-10, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-10, 2025
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The PM2.5 concentration in China underwent significant changes in 2013. We examined the underlying causes from three perspectives: anthropogenic pollutant emissions, meteorological conditions, and CO2 concentration variations. Our study highlighted the importance of considering the role of CO2 on vegetation when predicting PM2.5 concentrations and developing corresponding control strategies.
Jiangtao Li, Xingqin An, Zhaobin Sun, Caihua Ye, Qing Hou, Yuxin Zhao, and Zhe Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3583–3602, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3583-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3583-2025, 2025
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Climate change and pollution have intensified pollen allergies. We developed a pollen emissions model using phenology and random forests. Key factors affecting annual pollen emissions include temperature, relative humidity and sunshine hours. Pollen dispersal starts around 10 August, peaks around 30 August and ends by 25 September, lasting about 45 d. Over time, annual pollen emissions exhibit significant fluctuations and a downward trend.
Joe Adabouk Amooli, Marianne T. Lund, Sourangsu Chowdhury, Gunnar Myhre, Ane N. Johansen, Bjørn H. Samset, and Daniel M. Westervelt
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-948, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-948, 2025
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We analyze various projections of African aerosol emissions and their potential impacts on climate and public health. We find that future emissions vary widely across emission projections, with differences in sectoral emission distributions. Using the Oslo chemical transport model, we show that air pollution exposure in some regions of Africa could increase significantly by 2050, increasing pollution-related deaths, with most scenarios projecting aerosol-induced warming over sub-Saharan Africa.
Ruth A. R. Digby, Knut von Salzen, Adam H. Monahan, Nathan P. Gillett, and Jiangnan Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3109–3130, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3109-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3109-2025, 2025
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The refractive index of black carbon (BCRI), which determines how much energy black carbon absorbs and scatters, is difficult to measure, and different climate models use different values. We show that varying the BCRI across commonly used values can increase absorbing aerosol optical depth by 42 % and the warming effect from interactions between black carbon and radiation by 47 %, an appreciable fraction of the overall spread between models reported in recent literature assessments.
Valtteri Tikkanen, Huan Yang, Hanna Vehkamäki, and Bernhard Reischl
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-507, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-507, 2025
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Collisions of neutral molecules and clusters is the prevalent pathway in atmospheric new particle formation. In heavily polluted urban areas, where clusters are formed rapidly and in large number, cluster-cluster collisions also become relevant. We calculate cluster-cluster collision rates from atomistic molecular dynamics simulations and an interacting hard sphere model. Not accounting for long-range attractive interactions underestimates collision and particle formation rates significantly.
George Jordan, Florent Malavelle, Jim Haywood, Ying Chen, Ben Johnson, Daniel Partridge, Amy Peace, Eliza Duncan, Duncan Watson-Parris, David Neubauer, Anton Laakso, Martine Michou, and Pierre Nabat
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-835, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-835, 2025
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The 2014–15 Holuhraun eruption created a vast aerosol plume that acted as a natural experiment to assess how well climate models capture changes in cloud properties due to increased aerosol. We find that the models accurately represent the observed shift to smaller, more numerous cloud droplets. However, the models diverge in their aerosol induced changes to large-scale cloud properties, particularly cloud liquid water content. Our study shows that Holuhraun had a cooling effect on the Earth.
Hector Navarro-Barboza, Jordi Rovira, Vincenzo Obiso, Andrea Pozzer, Marta Via, Andres Alastuey, Xavier Querol, Noemi Perez, Marjan Savadkoohi, Gang Chen, Jesus Yus-Díez, Matic Ivancic, Martin Rigler, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Stergios Vratolis, Olga Zografou, Maria Gini, Benjamin Chazeau, Nicolas Marchand, Andre S. H. Prevot, Kaspar Dallenbach, Mikael Ehn, Krista Luoma, Tuukka Petäjä, Anna Tobler, Jaroslaw Necki, Minna Aurela, Hilkka Timonen, Jarkko Niemi, Olivier Favez, Jean-Eudes Petit, Jean-Philippe Putaud, Christoph Hueglin, Nicolas Pascal, Aurélien Chauvigné, Sébastien Conil, Marco Pandolfi, and Oriol Jorba
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2667–2694, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2667-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2667-2025, 2025
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Brown carbon (BrC) absorbs ultraviolet (UV) and visible light, influencing climate. This study explores BrC's imaginary refractive index (k) using data from 12 European sites. Residential emissions are a major organic aerosol (OA) source in winter, while secondary organic aerosol (SOA) dominates in summer. Source-specific k values were derived, improving model accuracy. The findings highlight BrC's climate impact and emphasize source-specific constraints in atmospheric models.
Yuzhi Jin, Jiandong Wang, Chao Liu, David C. Wong, Golam Sarwar, Kathleen M. Fahey, Shang Wu, Jiaping Wang, Jing Cai, Zeyuan Tian, Zhouyang Zhang, Jia Xing, Aijun Ding, and Shuxiao Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2613–2630, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2613-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2613-2025, 2025
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Black carbon (BC) affects climate and the environment, and its aging process alters its properties. Current models, like WRF-CMAQ, lack full accounting for it. We developed the WRF-CMAQ-BCG model to better represent BC aging by introducing bare and coated BC species and their conversion. The WRF-CMAQ-BCG model introduces the capability to simulate BC mixing states and bare and coated BC wet deposition, and it improves the accuracy of BC mass concentration and aerosol optics.
Zhe Song, Shaocai Yu, Pengfei Li, Ningning Yao, Lang Chen, Yuhai Sun, Boqiong Jiang, and Daniel Rosenfeld
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2473–2494, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2473-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2473-2025, 2025
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Our results with injected sea salt aerosols for five open oceans show that sea salt aerosols with low injection amounts dominate shortwave radiation, mainly through indirect effects. As indirect aerosol effects saturate with increasing injection rates, direct effects exceed indirect effects. This implies that marine cloud brightening is best implemented in areas with extensive cloud cover, while aerosol direct scattering effects remain dominant when clouds are scarce.
Danny M. Leung, Jasper F. Kok, Longlei Li, David M. Lawrence, Natalie M. Mahowald, Simone Tilmes, and Erik Kluzek
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2311–2331, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2311-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2311-2025, 2025
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This study derives a gridded dust emission dataset for 1841–2000 by employing a combination of observed dust from core records and reanalyzed global dust cycle constraints. We evaluate the ability of global models to replicate the observed historical dust variability by using the emission dataset to force a historical simulation in an Earth system model. We show that prescribing our emissions forces the model to better match observations than other mechanistic models.
Hongyu Liu, Bo Zhang, Richard H. Moore, Luke D. Ziemba, Richard A. Ferrare, Hyundeok Choi, Armin Sorooshian, David Painemal, Hailong Wang, Michael A. Shook, Amy Jo Scarino, Johnathan W. Hair, Ewan C. Crosbie, Marta A. Fenn, Taylor J. Shingler, Chris A. Hostetler, Gao Chen, Mary M. Kleb, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Mark A. Vaughan, Yongxiang Hu, Glenn S. Diskin, John B. Nowak, Joshua P. DiGangi, Yonghoon Choi, Christoph A. Keller, and Matthew S. Johnson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2087–2121, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2087-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2087-2025, 2025
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We use the GEOS-Chem model to simulate aerosol distributions and properties over the western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) during the winter and summer deployments in 2020 of the NASA ACTIVATE mission. Model results are evaluated against aircraft, ground-based, and satellite observations. The improved understanding of life cycle, composition, transport pathways, and distribution of aerosols has important implications for characterizing aerosol–cloud–meteorology interactions over WNAO.
Mingrui Ma, Jiachen Cao, Dan Tong, Bo Zheng, and Yu Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2147–2166, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2147-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2147-2025, 2025
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We combined two global climate change pathways and three national emission control scenarios to analyze the future evolution of reactive nitrogen (Nr) deposition till the 2060s in China with air quality modeling. We show China’s clean air and carbon neutrality policies would overcome the adverse effects of climate change and efficiently reduce Nr deposition. The outflow of Nr fluxes from mainland China to the west Pacific would also be clearly reduced from continuous stringent emission controls.
Zhouyang Zhang, Jiandong Wang, Jiaping Wang, Nicole Riemer, Chao Liu, Yuzhi Jin, Zeyuan Tian, Jing Cai, Yueyue Cheng, Ganzhen Chen, Bin Wang, Shuxiao Wang, and Aijun Ding
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1869–1881, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1869-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1869-2025, 2025
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Black carbon (BC) exerts notable warming effects. We use a particle-resolved model to investigate the long-term behavior of the BC mixing state, revealing its compositions, coating thickness distribution, and optical properties all stabilize with a characteristic time of less than 1 d. This study can effectively simplify the description of the BC mixing state, which facilitates the precise assessment of the optical properties of BC aerosols in global and chemical transport models.
Shuangqin Yang, Yusi Liu, Li Chen, Nan Cao, Jing Wang, and Shuang Gao
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3705, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3705, 2025
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Black carbon, primary brown carbon, and secondary brown carbon are the leading light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols (LACs) that contribute significantly to climate change. We modified the GEOS-Chem model to simulate the climate change by LACs based on local emission inventory, and explored the impacts of LACs properties and atmospheric variables on the corresponding DRFs in seven regions of China. The study confirms the warming effect of LACs and deepens our knowledge of their climatic effects.
Qianyi Huo, Zhicong Yin, Xiaoqing Ma, and Huijun Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1711–1724, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1711-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1711-2025, 2025
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Dust days during the spring seasons of 2015–2023 in North China were classified into Mongolian cyclone and cold high types depending on the presence of the Mongolian cyclone. The Mongolian cyclone type led to more frequent and severe dust weather, indicated by PM10 concentrations. To comprehensively forecast the two types of dust weather, a common predictor was established based on 500 hPa anomalous circulation systems, offering insights for dust weather forecasting and climate prediction.
Mariya Petrenko, Ralph Kahn, Mian Chin, Susanne E. Bauer, Tommi Bergman, Huisheng Bian, Gabriele Curci, Ben Johnson, Johannes W. Kaiser, Zak Kipling, Harri Kokkola, Xiaohong Liu, Keren Mezuman, Tero Mielonen, Gunnar Myhre, Xiaohua Pan, Anna Protonotariou, Samuel Remy, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Philip Stier, Toshihiko Takemura, Kostas Tsigaridis, Hailong Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Kai Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1545–1567, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1545-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1545-2025, 2025
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We compared smoke plume simulations from 11 global models to each other and to satellite smoke amount observations aimed at constraining smoke source strength. In regions where plumes are thick and background aerosol is low, models and satellites compare well. However, the input emission inventory tends to underestimate in many places, and particle property and loss rate assumptions vary enormously among models, causing uncertainties that require systematic in situ measurements to resolve.
Xinyue Shao, Minghuai Wang, Xinyi Dong, Yaman Liu, Stephen R. Arnold, Leighton A. Regayre, Duseong S. Jo, Wenxiang Shen, Hao Wang, Man Yue, Jingyi Wang, Wenxin Zhang, and Ken S. Carslaw
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4135, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4135, 2025
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This study uses a global chemistry-climate model to investigate how new particle formation (NPF) from highly oxygenated organic molecules (HOMs) contributes to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in both preindustrial (PI) and present-day (PD) environments, and its impact on aerosol indirect radiative forcing. The findings highlight the crucial role of biogenic emissions in climate change, providing new insights for carbon-neutral scenarios and enhancing understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions.
Yongqing Bai, Tianliang Zhao, Kai Meng, Yue Zhou, Jie Xiong, Xiaoyun Sun, Lijuan Shen, Yanyu Yue, Yan Zhu, Weiyang Hu, and Jingyan Yao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1273–1287, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1273-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1273-2025, 2025
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We proposed a composite statistical method to identify the quasi-weekly oscillation (QWO) of regional PM2.5 transport over China in winter from 2015 to 2019. The QWO of regional PM2.5 transport is constrained by synoptic-scale disturbances of the East Asian winter monsoon circulation with the periodic activities of the Siberian high, providing a new insight into the understanding of regional pollutant transport with meteorological drivers in atmospheric environment changes.
Léo Clauzel, Sandrine Anquetin, Christophe Lavaysse, Gilles Bergametti, Christel Bouet, Guillaume Siour, Rémy Lapere, Béatrice Marticorena, and Jennie Thomas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 997–1021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-997-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-997-2025, 2025
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Solar energy production in West Africa is set to rise and needs accurate solar radiation estimates which are affected by desert dust. This work analyses a March 2021 dust event using a modelling strategy incorporating desert dust. Results show that considering desert dust cuts errors in solar radiation estimates by 75 % and reduces surface solar radiation by 18 %. This highlights the importance of incorporating dust aerosols into solar forecasting for better accuracy.
Zining Yang, Qiuyan Du, Qike Yang, Chun Zhao, Gudongze Li, Zihan Xia, Mingyue Xu, Renmin Yuan, Yubin Li, Kaihui Xia, Jun Gu, and Jiawang Feng
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3890, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3890, 2025
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This study investigates the impact of turbulent mixing on black carbon (BC) concentrations in urban areas using WRF-Chem at 25, 5, and 1 km resolutions. Significant variations in BC and turbulent mixing occur mainly at night. Higher resolutions reduce BC overestimation due to enhanced PBL mixing coefficients and vertical wind fluxes. Small-scale eddies at higher resolutions increase BC lifetime and column concentrations. Land use and terrain variations across multi-resolutions affect PBL mixing.
Ari Laaksonen, Golnaz Roudsari, Ana A. Piedehierro, and André Welti
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4095, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-4095, 2025
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The mechanisms of ice nucleation at temperatures below 235 K have remained unclear for the past century. We suggest that ice nucleation is caused by the freezing of water adsorbed on aerosol surfaces. To test this hypothesis, we derived theoretical equations to predict the exact atmospheric conditions under which ice nucleation occurs. Our predictions agree well with experiments. The new theory thus provides a basis for an improved description of ice nucleation in the atmosphere.
Ross J. Herbert, Alberto Sanchez-Marroquin, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Kirsty J. Pringle, Stephen R. Arnold, Benjamin J. Murray, and Kenneth S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 291–325, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-291-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-291-2025, 2025
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Aerosol particles that help form ice in clouds vary in number and type around the world and with time. However, in many weather and climate models cloud ice is not linked to aerosols that are known to nucleate ice. Here we report the first steps towards representing ice-nucleating particles within the UK Earth System Model. We conclude that in addition to ice nucleation by sea spray and mineral components of soil dust, we also need to represent ice nucleation by the organic components of soils.
Ryan Schmedding and Andreas Zuend
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 327–346, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-327-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-327-2025, 2025
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Four different approaches for computing the interfacial tension between liquid phases in aerosol particles were tested for particles with diameters from 10 nm to more than 5 μm. Antonov's rule led to the strongest reductions in the onset relative humidity of liquid–liquid phase separation and reproduced measured interfacial tensions for highly immiscible systems. A modified form of the Butler equation was able to best reproduce measured interfacial tensions in more miscible systems.
Killian P. Brennan and Lena Wilhelm
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3924, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3924, 2024
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In this study, we discovered that natural dust carried into Europe significantly increases the likelihood of hailstorms. By analyzing dust data, weather records, and hail reports, we found that moderate dust levels lead to more frequent hail, while very high or low dust amounts reduce it. Adding dust information into statistical models improved forecasting skills. We aimed to understand how dust affects hailstorms.
Xinyue Huang, Wenyu Gao, and Hosein Foroutan
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3076, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3076, 2024
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This study investigates the relationship between wind-blown dust aerosols size distribution and wind conditions over topography at a regional scale, utilizing 10 years of dust reanalysis data. Linear regression models suggest that higher wind speeds and steeper land slopes, particularly under uphill winds, are associated with increased fractions of coarser dust particles. Moreover, these positive correlations weaken during summer and afternoon events, likely related to the haboob storms.
Lulu Yuan, Wenchao Han, Jiachen Meng, Yang Wang, Haojie Yu, and Wenze Li
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3350, 2024
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This study utilizes multi-source data to reveal the impact of various urban functional zones in China on the spatial distribution of pollutants. The findings indicate that the residential and commercial zones see notable air quality gains, but the improvement of air quality in the transportation zone is the least considerable. Moreover, the industrial zone has the most seasonal air quality variation. Therefore, air pollution prevention policies should consider differences in functional zones.
Carl Svenhag, Pontus Roldin, Tinja Olenius, Robin Wollesen de Jonge, Sara Blichner, Daniel Yazgi, and Moa Sporre
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3626, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3626, 2024
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This study investigates the model representation of how particles are formed and grow in the atmosphere. Using modeled and observed data from two boreal forest stations in 2018, we identify key factors for NPF to improve particle-climate predictions in the global EC-Earth3 model. Comparisons with the detailed ADCHEM model show that adding ammonia improves particle growth predictions, though EC-Earth3 still highly underestimates the number of particles during warmer months.
Masaru Yoshioka, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Ben B. B. Booth, Colin P. Morice, and Ken S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13681–13692, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13681-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13681-2024, 2024
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A 2020 regulation has reduced sulfur emissions from shipping by about 80 %, leading to a decrease in atmospheric aerosols that have a cooling effect primarily by affecting cloud properties and amounts. Our climate model simulations predict a global temperature increase of 0.04 K over the next 3 decades as a result, which could contribute to surpassing the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C target. Reduced aerosols may have also contributed to the recent temperature spikes.
Alcide Zhao, Laura J. Wilcox, and Claire L. Ryder
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13385–13402, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13385-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13385-2024, 2024
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Climate models include desert dust aerosols, which cause atmospheric heating and can change circulation patterns. We assess the effect of dust on the Indian and east Asian summer monsoons through multi-model experiments isolating the effect of dust in current climate models for the first time. Dust atmospheric heating results in a southward shift of western Pacific equatorial rainfall and an enhanced Indian summer monsoon. This shows the importance of accurate dust representation in models.
Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Rachael Byrom, Øivind Hodnebrog, Caroline Jouan, and Gunnar Myhre
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13361–13370, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13361-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13361-2024, 2024
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In 2020, new regulations by the International Maritime Organization regarding sulfur emissions came into force, reducing emissions of SO2 from the shipping sector by approximately 80 %. In this study, we use multiple models to calculate how much the Earth energy balance changed due to the emission reduction or the so-called effective radiative forcing. The calculated effective radiative forcing is weak, comparable to the effect of the increase in CO2 over the last 2 to 3 years.
Mingxu Liu, Hitoshi Matsui, Douglas S. Hamilton, Sagar D. Rathod, Kara D. Lamb, and Natalie M. Mahowald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13115–13127, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13115-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13115-2024, 2024
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Atmospheric aerosol deposition provides bioavailable iron to promote marine primary production, yet the estimates of its fluxes remain highly uncertain. This study, by performing global aerosol simulations, demonstrates that iron-containing particle size upon emission is a critical factor in regulating soluble iron input to open oceans. Further observational constraints on this are needed to reduce modeling uncertainties.
Thomas Drugé, Pierre Nabat, Martine Michou, and Marc Mallet
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3659, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3659, 2024
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Aerosol scattering in long-wave radiation is often neglected in climate models. In this study, we analyze its impact through a physical modeling of this process in the CNRM ARPEGE-Climat model. It mainly leads to surface LW radiation increases across Sahara, Sahel and Arabian Peninsula, resulting in daily minimum near-surface temperature rises. Other changes in atmospheric fields are also simulated.
Jingmin Li, Mattia Righi, Johannes Hendricks, Christof G. Beer, Ulrike Burkhardt, and Anja Schmidt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12727–12747, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12727-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12727-2024, 2024
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Aiming to understand underlying patterns and trends in aerosols, we characterize the spatial patterns and long-term evolution of lower tropospheric aerosols by clustering multiple aerosol properties from preindustrial times to the year 2050 under three Shared
Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios. The results provide a clear and condensed picture of the spatial extent and distribution of aerosols for different time periods and emission scenarios.
Socioeconomic Pathway scenarios. The results provide a clear and condensed picture of the spatial extent and distribution of aerosols for different time periods and emission scenarios.
Yueming Cheng, Tie Dai, Junji Cao, Daisuke Goto, Jianbing Jin, Teruyuki Nakajima, and Guangyu Shi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12643–12659, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12643-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12643-2024, 2024
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In March 2021, east Asia experienced an outbreak of severe dust storms after an absence of 1.5 decades. Here, we innovatively used the time-lagged ground-based aerosol size information with the fixed-lag ensemble Kalman smoother to optimize dust emission and reproduce the dust storm. This work is valuable for not only the quantification of health damage, aviation risks, and profound impacts on the Earth's system but also revealing the climatic driving force and the process of desertification.
Marc Mallet, Aurore Voldoire, Fabien Solmon, Pierre Nabat, Thomas Drugé, and Romain Roehrig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12509–12535, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12509-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12509-2024, 2024
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This study investigates the interactions between smoke aerosols and climate in tropical Africa using a coupled ocean–atmosphere–aerosol climate model. The work shows that smoke plumes have a significant impact by increasing the low-cloud fraction, decreasing the ocean and continental surface temperature and reducing the precipitation of coastal western Africa. It also highlights the role of the ocean temperature response and its feedbacks for the September–November season.
Jia Liu, Cancan Zhu, Donghui Zhou, and Jinbao Han
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12341–12354, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12341-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12341-2024, 2024
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The hydrophilic coatings of aged black carbon (BC) particles absorb moisture during the hygroscopic growth process, but it is difficult to characterize how much water is absorbed under different relative humidities (RHs). In this study, we propose a method to obtain the water content in the coatings based on the equivalent complex refractive index retrieved from optical properties. This method is verified from a theoretical perspective, and it performs well for thickly coated BC at high RHs.
Catherine Anne Toolan, Joe Adabouk Amooli, Laura J. Wilcox, Bjørn H. Samset, Andrew G. Turner, and Daniel M. Westervelt
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3057, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3057, 2024
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Our research explores how well air pollution and rainfall patterns in Africa are represented in current climate models, by comparing model data to observations from 1981 to 2023. While most models capture seasonal air quality changes well, they struggle to replicate the distribution of non-dust pollutants and certain rainfall patterns, especially over east Africa. Improving these models is crucial for better climate predictions and preparing for future risks.
Zijun Li, Angela Buchholz, and Noora Hyttinen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11717–11725, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11717-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11717-2024, 2024
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Evaluating organosulfur (OS) hygroscopicity is important for assessing aerosol–cloud climate interactions in the post-fossil-fuel future, when SO2 emissions decrease and OS compounds become increasingly important. Here a state-of-the-art quantum-chemistry-based method was used to predict the hygroscopic growth factors (HGFs) of a group of atmospherically relevant OS compounds and their mixtures with (NH4)2SO4. A good agreement was observed between their model-estimated and experimental HGFs.
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Short summary
Satellite observations are used to visualize dust storms over the Sahara, and specific infrared channel combinations can highlight dust with distinctive pink colours. Using output from a dust-atmosphere model to simulate satellite imagery, we explore the consequences of particle size, shape, and refractive index for the colour of dust in the imagery. Particles with a radius of ~ 1.5 microns perturb the colour the most and an assumption of spherical dust appears to be insufficient.
Satellite observations are used to visualize dust storms over the Sahara, and specific infrared...
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