Aerosol effects on cloud water amounts were successfully simulated by a global cloud-system resolving model.

ABSTRACT: Aerosols affect climate by modifying cloud properties through their role as cloud condensation nuclei or ice nuclei, called aerosol-cloud interactions. In most global climate models (GCMs), the aerosol-cloud interactions are represented by empirical parameterisations, in which the mass of cloud liquid water (LWP) is assumed to increase monotonically with increasing aerosol loading. Recent satellite observations, however, have yielded contradictory results: LWP can decrease with increasing aerosol loading. This difference implies that GCMs overestimate the aerosol effect, but the reasons for the difference are not obvious. Here, we reproduce satellite-observed LWP responses using a global simulation with explicit representations of cloud microphysics, instead of the parameterisations. Our a

SUBMITTER: Sato Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5841301 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature