Co-variability drives the inverted-V sensitivity between liquid water path and droplet concentrations

Goren, Tom; Choudhury, Goutam; Kretzschmar, Jan; McCoy, Isabel

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3413-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3413-2025

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

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3413-2025

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

Articles | Volume 25, issue 6

Research article

|

21 Mar 2025

Research article |

| 21 Mar 2025

Co-variability drives the inverted-V sensitivity between liquid water path and droplet concentrations

Tom Goren, Goutam Choudhury, Jan Kretzschmar, and Isabel McCoy

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3413-2025-supplement

Data sets

ERA5: Fifth generation of ECMWF atmospheric reanalyses of the global climate Copernicus Climate Change Service https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

The MODIS Cloud Optical and Microphysical Products: Collection 6 Updates and Examples From Terra and Aqua (https://ladsweb.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/archive/allData/61/MYD06_L2/) S. Platnick et al. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2016.2610522

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Short summary

Many studies have identified an inverted-V relationship between the liquid water path (LWP) and droplet concentration (N_d), where LWP increases and then decreases with N_d. Using satellite observations and meteorological data, we demonstrate that the inverted V primarily reflects co-variability between LWP and N_d. We suggest taking a holistic approach that considers this co-variability when assessing the climatological sensitivity of LWP to anthropogenic aerosols.