Satellite methods underestimate indirect climate forcing by aerosols.

ABSTRACT: Satellite-based estimates of the aerosol indirect effect (AIE) are consistently smaller than the estimates from global aerosol models, and, partly as a result of these differences, the assessment of this climate forcing includes large uncertainties. Satellite estimates typically use the present-day (PD) relationship between observed cloud drop number concentrations (N(c)) and aerosol optical depths (AODs) to determine the preindustrial (PI) values of N(c). These values are then used to determine the PD and PI cloud albedos and, thus, the effect of anthropogenic aerosols on top of the atmosphere radiative fluxes. Here, we use a model with realistic aerosol and cloud processes to show that empirical relationships for ln(N(c)) versus ln(AOD) derived from PD results do not represent the atmosp

SUBMITTER: Penner JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3158199 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature