Articles | Volume 23, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4595-2023
Research article
 | 
17 Apr 2023
Research article |  | 17 Apr 2023

Satellite observations of smoke–cloud–radiation interactions over the Amazon rainforest

Ross Herbert and Philip Stier

Related authors

Regional variability of aerosol impacts on clouds and radiation in global kilometer-scale simulations
Ross J. Herbert, Andrew I. L. Williams, Philipp Weiss, Duncan Watson-Parris, Elisabeth Dingley, Daniel Klocke, and Philip Stier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7789–7814, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7789-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7789-2025, 2025
Short summary
ICON-HAM-lite 1.0: simulating the Earth system with interactive aerosols at kilometer scales
Philipp Weiss, Ross Herbert, and Philip Stier
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 3877–3894, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3877-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-3877-2025, 2025
Short summary
Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model
Ross J. Herbert, Alberto Sanchez-Marroquin, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Kirsty J. Pringle, Stephen R. Arnold, Benjamin J. Murray, and Kenneth S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 291–325, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-291-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-291-2025, 2025
Short summary
The CLoud–Aerosol–Radiation Interaction and Forcing: Year 2017 (CLARIFY-2017) measurement campaign
Jim M. Haywood, Steven J. Abel, Paul A. Barrett, Nicolas Bellouin, Alan Blyth, Keith N. Bower, Melissa Brooks, Ken Carslaw, Haochi Che, Hugh Coe, Michael I. Cotterell, Ian Crawford, Zhiqiang Cui, Nicholas Davies, Beth Dingley, Paul Field, Paola Formenti, Hamish Gordon, Martin de Graaf, Ross Herbert, Ben Johnson, Anthony C. Jones, Justin M. Langridge, Florent Malavelle, Daniel G. Partridge, Fanny Peers, Jens Redemann, Philip Stier, Kate Szpek, Jonathan W. Taylor, Duncan Watson-Parris, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1049–1084, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1049-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1049-2021, 2021
Short summary
Diurnal cycle of the semi-direct effect from a persistent absorbing aerosol layer over marine stratocumulus in large-eddy simulations
Ross J. Herbert, Nicolas Bellouin, Ellie J. Highwood, and Adrian A. Hill
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1317–1340, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1317-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1317-2020, 2020
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Atmospheric processing and aerosol aging responsible for observed increase in absorptivity of long-range-transported smoke over the southeast Atlantic
Abdulamid A. Fakoya, Jens Redemann, Pablo E. Saide, Lan Gao, Logan T. Mitchell, Calvin Howes, Amie Dobracki, Ian Chang, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Kristina Pistone, Samuel E. Leblanc, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Thomas Eck, Brent Holben, Pawan Gupta, Elena Lind, Paquita Zuidema, Gregory Carmichael, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7879–7902, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7879-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7879-2025, 2025
Short summary
Discussion of the spectral slope of the lidar ratio between 355 and 1064 nm from multiwavelength Raman lidar observations
Moritz Haarig, Ronny Engelmann, Holger Baars, Benedikt Gast, Dietrich Althausen, and Albert Ansmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7741–7763, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7741-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7741-2025, 2025
Short summary
Observational constraints suggest a smaller effective radiative forcing from aerosol–cloud interactions
Chanyoung Park, Brian J. Soden, Ryan J. Kramer, Tristan S. L'Ecuyer, and Haozhe He
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7299–7313, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7299-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7299-2025, 2025
Short summary
Analysis of a saline dust storm from the Aralkum Desert – Part 1: Consistency between multisensor satellite aerosol products
Xin Xi, Jun Wang, Zhendong Lu, Andrew M. Sayer, Jaehwa Lee, Robert C. Levy, Yujie Wang, Alexei Lyapustin, Hongqing Liu, Istvan Laszlo, Changwoo Ahn, Omar Torres, Sabur Abdullaev, James Limbacher, and Ralph A. Kahn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7403–7429, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7403-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7403-2025, 2025
Short summary
Retrieval of microphysical properties of dust aerosols from extinction, backscattering and depolarization lidar measurements using various particle scattering models
Yuyang Chang, Qiaoyun Hu, Philippe Goloub, Thierry Podvin, Igor Veselovskii, Fabrice Ducos, Gaël Dubois, Masanori Saito, Anton Lopatin, Oleg Dubovik, and Cheng Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 6787–6821, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6787-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-6787-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Andreae, M. O., Rosenfeld, D., Artaxo, P., Costa, A. A., Frank, G. P., Longo, K. M., and Silva-Dias, M. A. F.: Smoking Rain Clouds over the Amazon, Science, 303, 1337–1342, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1092779, 2004. 
Barkley, A. E., Prospero, J. M., Mahowald, N., Hamilton, D. S., Popendorf, K. J., Oehlert, A. M., Pourmand, A., Gatineau, A., Panechou-Pulcherie, K., Blackwelder, P., and Gaston, C. J.: African biomass burning is a substantial source of phosphorus deposition to the Amazon, Tropical Atlantic Ocean, and Southern Ocean, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116, 16216–16221, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906091116, 2019. 
Bevan, S. L., North, P. R. J., Grey, W. M. F., Los, S. O., and Plummer, S. E.: The impact of atmospheric aerosol from biomass burning on Amazon dry-season drought, in: European Space Agency, Special Publication, ESA SP, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008jd011112, 2008. 
Boisier, J. P., Ciais, P., Ducharne, A., and Guimberteau, M.: Projected strengthening of Amazonian dry season by constrained climate model simulations, Nat. Clim. Chang., 5, 656–660, https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2658, 2015. 
Download
Short summary
We provide robust evidence from multiple sources showing that smoke from fires in the Amazon rainforest significantly modifies the diurnal cycle of convection and cools the climate. Low to moderate amounts of smoke increase deep convective clouds and rain, whilst beyond a threshold amount, the smoke starts to suppress the convection and rain. We are currently at this threshold, suggesting increases in fires from agricultural practices or droughts will reduce cloudiness and rain over the region.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint