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Published byDaniella Phillips Modified over 9 years ago
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Atul Kapur
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Direct effects i. Aerosols scatter & absorb solar radiation ii. Scatter, absorb & emit thermal radiation Indirect effects: Aerosols can act as CCN & IN i. Twomey effect: More but smaller cloud droplets lead to enhanced reflection of solar radiation ii. Lifetime effect: More but smaller cloud droplets reduce the precipitataion efficiency & therefore enhance the cloud lifetime Semi-direct effect: Aerosols can absob solar radiation leading to heating of air, which can result in evaporation of cloud droplets
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Evidence of aerosol effect in warm clouds Evidence from Ship Tracks – conversion from open to closed cells Rosenfeld, Kaufman, and Koren (2005) Evidence from Satellite data Breon, Tanre, and Generoso (2002)
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Lohmann & Feichter (2005)
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Twomey effect and Cloud lifetime cause net radiative cooling (both are comparable) Warming due to semi-direct effect can partially offset this cooling But both Cloud Lifetime and Semi-direct effect involve feedbacks: (Hence not included in IPCC) Twomey effect holds only if cloud thickness doesn’t change! But polluted clouds were thinner as they originated over continents (which can lower optical thickness) Dispersion effect: Increasing no. of cloud droplets affect shape of cloud droplet spectrum. ◦ Twomey effect can be reduced by 10-80%
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Lohmann & Feichter (2005)
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Most precipitation occurs via ice phase Aerosol effects poorly understood because of variety of heterogenous nucleation modes ◦ Contact Nucleation: Most efficient at slight coolings ◦ Immersion freezing: Efficient at lower temperatures ◦ Deposition nuclei: least efficient Bergeron-Findeisen process: glaciation leads to shorter lifetime as precipitation formation is now more efficient If soot is also considered ◦ More frequent glaciation ◦ Leads to “glaciation indirect effect” Effects deep convective processes ◦ Smaller cloud droplets reduce drizzle: leads to vigrous convection
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Lohmann (2002)
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Lohmann (2004)
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Aerosol Radiative effects: ◦ Both Twomey and cloud lifetime effect lead to cooling ◦ Semi-direct effect more prominent when aerosols occur within cloud droplets ◦ Decrease in cloud amount due to precipitation Effects on hydrological cycle: ◦ Suppression of drizzle: increase in cloud lifetime ◦ Occurrence and frequency of precipitation ◦ Reduction in net solar radiation reaching the surface (in particular direct sunlight) ◦ Delay of freezing in mixed phase clouds due to smaller droplets
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