Sunlight-absorbing aerosol amplifies the seasonal cycle in low-cloud fraction over the southeast Atlantic

Zhang, Jianhao; Zuidema, Paquita

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11179-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11179-2021

© Author(s) 2021. 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-21-11179-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 14

Research article

|

23 Jul 2021

Research article |

| 23 Jul 2021

Sunlight-absorbing aerosol amplifies the seasonal cycle in low-cloud fraction over the southeast Atlantic

Jianhao Zhang and Paquita Zuidema

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11179-2021-supplement

Data sets

LASIC ground-based data sets Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility https://www.arm.gov/research/campaigns/ amf2016lasic

Met Office synoptic hourly weather reports Comprehensive Environmental Data Archive (CEDA) of the Met Office Integrated Data Archive System http://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/ 77910bcec71c820d4c92f40d3ed3f249

Fifth-generation ECMWF (ERA5) atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate data Copernicus Climate Change Service https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/

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Short summary

The subtropical Atlantic hosts one of the planet's largest marine low cloud decks and interacts with biomass burning aerosol from approximately July through October. This study clarifies how the monthly evolution in meteorology and the biomass burning aerosol vertical structure affects the seasonal cycle in its low cloud fraction, such that the July–October evolution in low cloud cover and morphology are reinforced, when compared to scenarios with less aerosol present.