Articles | Volume 22, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2769-2022
© Author(s) 2022. 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-22-2769-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
02 Mar 2022
Research article |
| 02 Mar 2022
| 02 Mar 2022
Factors affecting precipitation formation and precipitation susceptibility of marine stratocumulus with variable above- and below-cloud aerosol concentrations over the Southeast Atlantic
Cooperative Institute for Severe and High Impact Weather Research and
Operations, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Greg M. McFarquhar
Cooperative Institute for Severe and High Impact Weather Research and
Operations, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
School of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA
Joseph R. O'Brien
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand
Forks, ND, USA
Michael R. Poellot
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand
Forks, ND, USA
David J. Delene
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of North Dakota, Grand
Forks, ND, USA
Rose M. Miller
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Jennifer D. Small Griswold
Department of Meteorology, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, Honolulu,
HI, USA
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Calvin Howes, Pablo E. Saide, Hugh Coe, Amie Dobracki, Steffen Freitag, Jim M. Haywood, Steven G. Howell, Siddhant Gupta, Janek Uin, Mary Kacarab, Chongai Kuang, L. Ruby Leung, Athanasios Nenes, Greg M. McFarquhar, James Podolske, Jens Redemann, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Jenny P. S. Wong, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, Yang Zhang, Jianhao Zhang, and Paquita Zuidema
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Rose Marie Miller, Robert M. Rauber, Larry Di Girolamo, Matthew Rilloraza, Dongwei Fu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Luke D. Ziemba, Sarah Woods, and Kenneth Lee Thornhill
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The influence of human-produced aerosols on clouds remains one of the uncertainties in radiative forcing of Earth’s climate. Measurements of aerosol chemistry from sources around the Philippines illustrate the linkage between aerosol chemical composition and cloud droplet characteristics. Differences in aerosol chemical composition in the marine layer from biomass burning, industrial, ship-produced, and marine aerosols are shown to impact cloud microphysical structure just above cloud base.
Ruhi S. Humphries, Melita D. Keywood, Jason P. Ward, James Harnwell, Simon P. Alexander, Andrew R. Klekociuk, Keiichiro Hara, Ian M. McRobert, Alain Protat, Joel Alroe, Luke T. Cravigan, Branka Miljevic, Zoran D. Ristovski, Robyn Schofield, Stephen R. Wilson, Connor J. Flynn, Gourihar R. Kulkarni, Gerald G. Mace, Greg M. McFarquhar, Scott D. Chambers, Alastair G. Williams, and Alan D. Griffiths
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Paul A. Barrett, Steven J. Abel, Hugh Coe, Ian Crawford, Amie Dobracki, James Haywood, Steve Howell, Anthony Jones, Justin Langridge, Greg M. McFarquhar, Graeme J. Nott, Hannah Price, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Kate Szpek, Jonathan W. Taylor, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, Paquita Zuidema, Stéphane Bauguitte, Ryan Bennett, Keith Bower, Hong Chen, Sabrina Cochrane, Michael Cotterell, Nicholas Davies, David Delene, Connor Flynn, Andrew Freedman, Steffen Freitag, Siddhant Gupta, David Noone, Timothy B. Onasch, James Podolske, Michael R. Poellot, Sebastian Schmidt, Stephen Springston, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Jamie Trembath, Alan Vance, Maria A. Zawadowicz, and Jianhao Zhang
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Siddhant Gupta, Greg M. McFarquhar, Joseph R. O'Brien, Michael R. Poellot, David J. Delene, Ian Chang, Lan Gao, Feng Xu, and Jens Redemann
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Zhipeng Qu, Alexei Korolev, Jason A. Milbrandt, Ivan Heckman, Yongjie Huang, Greg M. McFarquhar, Hugh Morrison, Mengistu Wolde, and Cuong Nguyen
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Edward Gryspeerdt, Daniel T. McCoy, Ewan Crosbie, Richard H. Moore, Graeme J. Nott, David Painemal, Jennifer Small-Griswold, Armin Sorooshian, and Luke Ziemba
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3875–3892, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3875-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3875-2022, 2022
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Droplet number concentration is a key property of clouds, influencing a variety of cloud processes. It is also used for estimating the cloud response to aerosols. The satellite retrieval depends on a number of assumptions – different sampling strategies are used to select cases where these assumptions are most likely to hold. Here we investigate the impact of these strategies on the agreement with in situ data, the droplet number climatology and estimates of the indirect radiative forcing.
Dongwei Fu, Larry Di Girolamo, Robert M. Rauber, Greg M. McFarquhar, Stephen W. Nesbitt, Jesse Loveridge, Yulan Hong, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Brian Cairns, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Paul Lawson, Sarah Woods, Simone Tanelli, Sebastian Schmidt, Chris Hostetler, and Amy Jo Scarino
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Satellite-retrieved cloud microphysics are widely used in climate research because of their central role in water and energy cycles. Here, we provide the first detailed investigation of retrieved cloud drop sizes from in situ and various satellite and airborne remote sensing techniques applied to real cumulus cloud fields. We conclude that the most widely used passive remote sensing method employed in climate research produces high biases of 6–8 µm (60 %–80 %) caused by 3-D radiative effects.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Ming Xue, Hugh Morrison, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, Yachao Hu, Zhipeng Qu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2365–2384, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, 2022
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Numerous small ice crystals in tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. Previous numerical simulations failed to reproduce this phenomenon and hypothesized that key microphysical processes are still lacking in current models to realistically simulate the phenomenon. This study uses numerical experiments to confirm the dominant role of secondary ice production in the formation of these large numbers of small ice crystals.
Matthew W. Christensen, Andrew Gettelman, Jan Cermak, Guy Dagan, Michael Diamond, Alyson Douglas, Graham Feingold, Franziska Glassmeier, Tom Goren, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Edward Gryspeerdt, Ralph Kahn, Zhanqing Li, Po-Lun Ma, Florent Malavelle, Isabel L. McCoy, Daniel T. McCoy, Greg McFarquhar, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Sandip Pal, Anna Possner, Adam Povey, Johannes Quaas, Daniel Rosenfeld, Anja Schmidt, Roland Schrödner, Armin Sorooshian, Philip Stier, Velle Toll, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Mingxi Yang, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 641–674, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-641-2022, 2022
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Trace gases and aerosols (tiny airborne particles) are released from a variety of point sources around the globe. Examples include volcanoes, industrial chimneys, forest fires, and ship stacks. These sources provide opportunistic experiments with which to quantify the role of aerosols in modifying cloud properties. We review the current state of understanding on the influence of aerosol on climate built from the wide range of natural and anthropogenic laboratories investigated in recent decades.
Rose M. Miller, Greg M. McFarquhar, Robert M. Rauber, Joseph R. O'Brien, Siddhant Gupta, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Amie N. Dobracki, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Sharon P. Burton, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, and Caroline Dang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14815–14831, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14815-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14815-2021, 2021
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Ruhi S. Humphries, Melita D. Keywood, Sean Gribben, Ian M. McRobert, Jason P. Ward, Paul Selleck, Sally Taylor, James Harnwell, Connor Flynn, Gourihar R. Kulkarni, Gerald G. Mace, Alain Protat, Simon P. Alexander, and Greg McFarquhar
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The Southern Ocean region is one of the most pristine in the world and serves as an important proxy for the pre-industrial atmosphere. Improving our understanding of the natural processes in this region is likely to result in the largest reductions in the uncertainty of climate and earth system models. In this paper we present a statistical summary of the latitudinal gradient of aerosol and cloud condensation nuclei concentrations obtained from five voyages spanning the Southern Ocean.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Xuguang Wang, Hugh Morrison, Alexander Ryzhkov, Yachao Hu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6919–6944, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021, 2021
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Numerous small ice crystals in the tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. This study evaluated the numerical models against the airborne observations and investigated the potential cloud processes that could lead to the production of these large numbers of small ice crystals. It is found that key microphysical processes are still lacking or misrepresented in current numerical models to realistically simulate the phenomenon.
Andrew M. Dzambo, Tristan L'Ecuyer, Kenneth Sinclair, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Siddhant Gupta, Greg McFarquhar, Joseph R. O'Brien, Brian Cairns, Andrzej P. Wasilewski, and Mikhail Alexandrov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5513–5532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5513-2021, 2021
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This work highlights a new algorithm using data collected from the 2016–2018 NASA ORACLES field campaign. This algorithm synthesizes cloud and rain measurements to attain estimates of cloud and precipitation properties over the southeast Atlantic Ocean. Estimates produced by this algorithm compare well against in situ estimates. Increased rain fractions and rain rates are found in regions of atmospheric instability. This dataset can be used to explore aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions.
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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4615–4635, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4615-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4615-2021, 2021
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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.
Dillon S. Dodson and Jennifer D. Small Griswold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1937–1961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1937-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1937-2021, 2021
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The results here reinforce findings from previous in situ studies of the marine boundary layer. It is found that turbulence is maximized in the middle of the stratocumulus layer from latent heating effects. Precipitation acts to increase turbulence in the sub-cloud layer, while acting to stabilize the entire boundary layer after the evaporation of precipitation in the sub-cloud has stopped. A negative correlation is present between the boundary layer height and turbulence.
Jens Redemann, Robert Wood, Paquita Zuidema, Sarah J. Doherty, Bernadette Luna, Samuel E. LeBlanc, Michael S. Diamond, Yohei Shinozuka, Ian Y. Chang, Rei Ueyama, Leonhard Pfister, Ju-Mee Ryoo, Amie N. Dobracki, Arlindo M. da Silva, Karla M. Longo, Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Connor J. Flynn, Kristina Pistone, Nichola M. Knox, Stuart J. Piketh, James M. Haywood, Paola Formenti, Marc Mallet, Philip Stier, Andrew S. Ackerman, Susanne E. Bauer, Ann M. Fridlind, Gregory R. Carmichael, Pablo E. Saide, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Steven G. Howell, Steffen Freitag, Brian Cairns, Brent N. Holben, Kirk D. Knobelspiesse, Simone Tanelli, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, Andrew M. Dzambo, Ousmane O. Sy, Greg M. McFarquhar, Michael R. Poellot, Siddhant Gupta, Joseph R. O'Brien, Athanasios Nenes, Mary Kacarab, Jenny P. S. Wong, Jennifer D. Small-Griswold, Kenneth L. Thornhill, David Noone, James R. Podolske, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Peter Pilewskie, Hong Chen, Sabrina P. Cochrane, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Timothy J. Lang, Eric Stith, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Chris A. Hostetler, David J. Diner, Felix C. Seidel, Steven E. Platnick, Jeffrey S. Myers, Kerry G. Meyer, Douglas A. Spangenberg, Hal Maring, and Lan Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1507–1563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1507-2021, 2021
Short summary
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Southern Africa produces significant biomass burning emissions whose impacts on regional and global climate are poorly understood. ORACLES (ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS) is a 5-year NASA investigation designed to study the key processes that determine these climate impacts. The main purpose of this paper is to familiarize the broader scientific community with the ORACLES project, the dataset it produced, and the most important initial findings.
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Short summary
This study evaluates the impact of biomass burning aerosols on precipitation in marine stratocumulus clouds using observations from the NASA ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES) field campaign over the Southeast Atlantic. Instances of contact and separation between aerosol and cloud layers show polluted clouds have a lower precipitation rate and a lower precipitation susceptibility. This information will help improve cloud representation in Earth system models.
This study evaluates the impact of biomass burning aerosols on precipitation in marine...
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