Biomass burning aerosol as a modulator of the droplet number in the southeast Atlantic region

Kacarab, Mary; Thornhill, K. Lee; Dobracki, Amie; Howell, Steven G.; O'Brien, Joseph R.; Freitag, Steffen; Poellot, Michael R.; Wood, Robert; Zuidema, Paquita; Redemann, Jens; Nenes, Athanasios

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3029-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3029-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

New observations and related modelling studies of the aerosol–cloud–climate...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3029-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 5

Research article

|

13 Mar 2020

Research article |

| 13 Mar 2020

Biomass burning aerosol as a modulator of the droplet number in the southeast Atlantic region

Mary Kacarab, K. Lee Thornhill, Amie Dobracki, Steven G. Howell, Joseph R. O'Brien, Steffen Freitag, Michael R. Poellot, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Jens Redemann, and Athanasios Nenes

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Preprint (discussion started on 05 Sep 2019)
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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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RC1: 'Review of "Biomass Burning Aerosol as a Modulator of Droplet Number in the Southeast Atlantic Region"', Anonymous Referee #1, 05 Nov 2019
- AC1: 'Responses', Athanasios Nenes, 04 Jan 2020
RC2: 'Biomass Burning Aerosol as a Modulator of Droplet Number in the Southeast Atlantic Region', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 Nov 2019
- AC2: 'Responses', Athanasios Nenes, 04 Jan 2020

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Athanasios Nenes on behalf of the Authors (07 Feb 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (10 Feb 2020) by J.M. Haywood

AR by Athanasios Nenes on behalf of the Authors (12 Feb 2020) Manuscript

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Short summary

We find that extensive biomass burning aerosol plumes from southern Africa can profoundly influence clouds in the southeastern Atlantic. Concurrent variations in vertical velocity, however, are found to magnify the relationship between boundary layer aerosol and the cloud droplet number. Neglecting these covariances may strongly bias the sign and magnitude of aerosol impacts on the cloud droplet number.