The impact of aerosols on cloud and precipitation processes: cloud-resolving model simulations

Author

Tao, Wei-Kuo ; Li, Xiaowen ; Khain, Alexander ; Matsui, Toshihisa ; Lang, Stephen ; Simpson, Joanne

Author_Institution

Lab. for Atmospheres, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

22-27 July 2012

Firstpage

2419

Lastpage

2422

Abstract

Recently, a detailed spectral-bin microphysical scheme was implemented into the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) model. Atmospheric aerosols are also described using number density size-distribution functions. A spectral-bin microphysical model is very expensive from a computational point of view and has only been implemented into the 2D version of the GCE at the present time. The model is tested by studying the evolution of deep tropical clouds in the west Pacific warm pool region and summertime convection over a mid-latitude continent with different concentrations of CCN: a low "clean" concentration and a high "dirty" concentration. The impact of atmospheric aerosol concentration on cloud and precipitation will be investigated.

Keywords

aerosols; atmospheric precipitation; clouds; convection; modelling; 2D GCE; GCE model; Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model; aerosol effects; atmospheric aerosol concentration effects; atmospheric aerosols; cloud processes; cloud resolving model simulations; deep tropical cloud evolution; midlatitude continent; number density size distribution functions; precipitation processes; spectral bin microphysical scheme; summertime convection; west Pacific warm pool region; Aerosols; Atmospheric modeling; Clouds; Cooling; Ice; Rain; Surface cleaning;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2012 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Munich

ISSN

2153-6996

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1160-1

Electronic_ISBN

2153-6996

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6351003

Filename

6351003