Articles | Volume 20, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15079-2020
Review article
 | 
04 Dec 2020
Review article |  | 04 Dec 2020

Constraining the Twomey effect from satellite observations: issues and perspectives

Johannes Quaas, Antti Arola, Brian Cairns, Matthew Christensen, Hartwig Deneke, Annica M. L. Ekman, Graham Feingold, Ann Fridlind, Edward Gryspeerdt, Otto Hasekamp, Zhanqing Li, Antti Lipponen, Po-Lun Ma, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Athanasios Nenes, Joyce E. Penner, Daniel Rosenfeld, Roland Schrödner, Kenneth Sinclair, Odran Sourdeval, Philip Stier, Matthias Tesche, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, and Manfred Wendisch

Related authors

Pristine oceans are a significant source of uncertainty in quantifying global cloud condensation nuclei
Goutam Choudhury, Karoline Block, Mahnoosh Haghighatnasab, Johannes Quaas, Tom Goren, and Matthias Tesche
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3841–3856, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3841-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3841-2025, 2025
Short summary
Can general circulation models (GCMs) represent cloud liquid water path adjustments to aerosol–cloud interactions?
Johannes Mülmenstädt, Andrew S. Ackerman, Ann M. Fridlind, Meng Huang, Po-Lun Ma, Naser Mahfouz, Susanne E. Bauer, Susannah M. Burrows, Matthew W. Christensen, Sudhakar Dipu, Andrew Gettelman, L. Ruby Leung, Florian Tornow, Johannes Quaas, Adam C. Varble, Hailong Wang, Kai Zhang, and Youtong Zheng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13633–13652, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13633-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13633-2024, 2024
Short summary
Aerosol-cloud interactions in liquid-phase clouds under different meteorological and aerosol backgrounds
Jianqi Zhao, Xiaoyan Ma, and Johannes Quaas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3662,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3662, 2024
Short summary
Sensitivity experiments with ICON-LAM to test probable explanations for higher ice crystal number over Arctic sea ice vs. ocean
Iris Papakonstantinou-Presvelou and Johannes Quaas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3293,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3293, 2024
Short summary
Adjustments to an abrupt solar forcing in the CMIP6 abrupt-solm4p experiment
Charlotte Lange and Johannes Quaas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3229,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3229, 2024
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Study of optical scattering properties and direct radiative effects of high-altitude cirrus clouds in Barcelona, Spain, with 4 years of lidar measurements
Cristina Gil-Díaz, Michäel Sicard, Odran Sourdeval, Athulya Saiprakash, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Adolfo Comerón, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, and Daniel Camilo Fortunato dos Santos Oliveira
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3445–3464, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3445-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3445-2025, 2025
Short summary
Co-variability drives the inverted-V sensitivity between liquid water path and droplet concentrations
Tom Goren, Goutam Choudhury, Jan Kretzschmar, and Isabel McCoy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3413–3423, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3413-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3413-2025, 2025
Short summary
Lightning declines over shipping lanes following regulation of fuel sulfur emissions
Chris J. Wright, Joel A. Thornton, Lyatt Jaeglé, Yang Cao, Yannian Zhu, Jihu Liu, Randall Jones II, Robert Holzworth, Daniel Rosenfeld, Robert Wood, Peter Blossey, and Daehyun Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2937–2946, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2937-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2937-2025, 2025
Short summary
Post-return stroke VHF electromagnetic activity in north-western Mediterranean cloud-to-ground lightning flashes
Andrea Kolínská, Ivana Kolmašová, Eric Defer, Ondřej Santolík, and Stéphane Pédeboy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1791–1803, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1791-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1791-2025, 2025
Short summary
Technical note: Applicability of physics-based and machine-learning-based algorithms of a geostationary satellite in retrieving the diurnal cycle of cloud base height
Mengyuan Wang, Min Min, Jun Li, Han Lin, Yongen Liang, Binlong Chen, Zhigang Yao, Na Xu, and Miao Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14239–14256, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14239-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14239-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Ackerman, A., Toon, O., Taylor, J., Johnson, D., Hobbs, P., and Ferek, R.: Effects of aerosols on cloud albedo: Evaluation of Twomey's parameterization of cloud susceptibility using measurements of ship tracks, J. Atmos. Sci., 57, 2684–2695, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(2000)057<2684:EOAOCA>2.0.CO;2, 2000. a, b
Ackerman, A., Kirkpatrick, M., Stevens, D., and Toon, O.: The impact of humidity above stratiform clouds on indirect aerosol climate forcing, Nature, 432, 1014–1017, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03174, 2004. a
Aitken, J.: On dust, fogs, and clouds, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 11, 122–126, 1880. a
Albrecht, B.: Aerosols, cloud microphysics, and fractional cloudiness, Science, 245, 1227–1230, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.245.4923.1227, 1989. a, b
Alexandrov, M., Cairns, B., and Mishchenko, M.: Rainbow Fourier transform, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Ra., 113, 2521–2535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2012.03.025, 2012a. a
Download
Short summary
Anthropogenic pollution particles – aerosols – serve as cloud condensation nuclei and thus increase cloud droplet concentration and the clouds' reflection of sunlight (a cooling effect on climate). This Twomey effect is poorly constrained by models and requires satellite data for better quantification. The review summarizes the challenges in properly doing so and outlines avenues for progress towards a better use of aerosol retrievals and better retrievals of droplet concentrations.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint