The ACCESS-AM2 climate model underestimates  aerosol concentration in the Southern Ocean;  improving aerosol representation could be problematic for the global energy balance

Fiddes, Sonya L.; Woodhouse, Matthew T.; Mallet, Marc D.; Lamprey, Liam J.; Humphries, Ruhi S.; Protat, Alain; Alexander, Simon P.; Hayashida, Hakase; Putland, Samuel; Miljevic, Branka; Schofield, Robyn

doi:10.5194/acp-25-16451-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16451-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16451-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 22

Research article

|

24 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 24 Nov 2025

The ACCESS-AM2 climate model underestimates aerosol concentration in the Southern Ocean; improving aerosol representation could be problematic for the global energy balance

Sonya L. Fiddes, Matthew T. Woodhouse, Marc D. Mallet, Liam J. Lamprey, Ruhi S. Humphries, Alain Protat, Simon P. Alexander, Hakase Hayashida, Samuel Putland, Branka Miljevic, and Robyn Schofield

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Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Oct 2024	286	104	20	410
Nov 2024	284	112	10	406
Dec 2024	98	44	4	146
Jan 2025	80	28	16	124
Feb 2025	40	24	14	78
Mar 2025	40	32	0	72
Apr 2025	32	20	8	60
May 2025	42	4	96	142
Jun 2025	60	58	22	140
Jul 2025	68	42	0	110
Aug 2025	276	26	2	304
Sep 2025	1,086	62	22	1,170
Oct 2025	82	28	6	116
Nov 2025	517	74	10	601
Dec 2025	394	137	14	545
Jan 2026	747	207	31	985
Feb 2026	312	141	21	474
Mar 2026	216	457	9	682
Apr 2026	199	183	7	389
May 2026	156	138	9	303
Jun 2026	24	24	7	55
Jul 2026	145	30	10	185

Cumulative views and downloads (calculated since 21 Oct 2024)

Month	HTML	PDF	XML	Total
Oct 2024	286	104	20	410
Nov 2024	284	112	10	406
Dec 2024	98	44	4	146
Jan 2025	80	28	16	124
Feb 2025	40	24	14	78
Mar 2025	40	32	0	72
Apr 2025	32	20	8	60
May 2025	42	4	96	142
Jun 2025	60	58	22	140
Jul 2025	68	42	0	110
Aug 2025	276	26	2	304
Sep 2025	1,086	62	22	1,170
Oct 2025	82	28	6	116
Nov 2025	517	74	10	601
Dec 2025	394	137	14	545
Jan 2026	747	207	31	985
Feb 2026	312	141	21	474
Mar 2026	216	457	9	682
Apr 2026	199	183	7	389
May 2026	156	138	9	303
Jun 2026	24	24	7	55
Jul 2026	145	30	10	185

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Total article views: 7,497 (including HTML, PDF, and XML) Thereof 7,413 with geography defined and 84 with unknown origin.

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Short summary

The interaction between natural marine aerosols, clouds and radiation in the Southern Ocean is a major source of uncertainty in climate models. We evaluate the Australian climate model using aerosol observations and find it underestimates aerosol number often by over 50%. Model changes were tested to improve aerosol concentrations, but some of our changes had severe negative effects on the larger climate system, highlighting issues in aerosol-cloud interaction modelling.