Impact of the variability in vertical separation between biomass burning aerosols and marine stratocumulus on cloud microphysical properties over the Southeast Atlantic

Gupta, Siddhant; McFarquhar, Greg M.; O'Brien, Joseph R.; Delene, David J.; Poellot, Michael R.; Dobracki, Amie; Podolske, James R.; Redemann, Jens; LeBlanc, Samuel E.; Segal-Rozenhaimer, Michal; Pistone, Kristina

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4615-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4615-2021

© 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-21-4615-2021

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

Articles | Volume 21, issue 6

Research article

|

25 Mar 2021

Research article |

| 25 Mar 2021

Impact of the variability in vertical separation between biomass burning aerosols and marine stratocumulus on cloud microphysical properties over the Southeast Atlantic

Siddhant Gupta, Greg M. McFarquhar, Joseph R. O'Brien, David J. Delene, Michael R. Poellot, Amie Dobracki, James R. Podolske, Jens Redemann, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, and Kristina Pistone

Data sets

Suite of Aerosol, Cloud, and Related Data Acquired Aboard P3 During ORACLES 2016, Version 2 ORACLES Science Team https://doi.org/10.5067/Suborbital/ORACLES/P3/2016_V2

Model code and software

Airborne Data Processing and Analysis Software Package (Version 3981) David J. Delene A. Skow, J. O'Brien, N. Gapp, S. Wagner, K. Hibert, K. Sand, and G. Sova https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3733448

University of Illinois/Oklahoma Optical Array Probe (OAP) Processing Software G. M. McFarquhar, J. A. Finlon, D. M. Stechman, W. Wu, R. C. Jackson, and M. Freer https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1285969

Short summary

Observations from the 2016 NASA ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) field campaign examine how biomass burning aerosols from southern Africa affect marine stratocumulus cloud decks over the Southeast Atlantic. Instances of contact and separation between aerosols and clouds are examined to quantify the impact of aerosol mixing into cloud top on cloud drop numbers and sizes. This information is needed for improving Earth system models and satellite retrievals.