Identification

Title

Observationally constrained aerosol-cloud semi-direct effects

Abstract

Absorbing aerosols, like black carbon (BC), give rise to rapid adjustments, and the associated perturbation to the atmospheric temperature structure alters the cloud distribution. The level of scientific understanding of these rapid cloud adjustments- otherwise known as semi-direct effects (SDEs)-is considered low, with models indicating a likely negative (-0.44 to +0.1 Wm(-2)) forcing. Recent studies suggest this negative SDE is primarily driven by decreases in high-level clouds and enhanced longwave cooling. Here, we investigate the SDE using multiple models driven by observationally constrained fine-mode aerosol forcing without dust and sea salt. Unlike aerosol simulations, which yield a relatively vertically uniform aerosol atmospheric heating profile with significant upper-tropospheric heating, observation-based heating peaks in the lower-troposphere and then decays to zero in the mid-troposphere. We find a significant global annual mean decrease in low- and mid-level clouds, and weaker decreases in high-level clouds, which leads to a positive SDE dominated by shortwave radiation. Thus, in contrast to most studies, we find a robust positive SDE, implying cloud adjustments act to warm the climate system. Sensitivity tests with identical average, but vertically uniform observationally constrained aerosol atmospheric heating result in a negative SDE, due to enhanced longwave cooling as a result of large reductions in high-level clouds. Our results therefore suggest that model simulations lead to a negatively biased SDE, due to an aerosol atmospheric heating profile that is too vertically uniform.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d74t6njz

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-05-24T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact