In-situ observations reveal weak hygroscopicity in the Southern Tibetan Plateau: implications for aerosol activation and indirect effects

• Published in: NPJ climate and atmospheric science 2024-03, Vol.7 (1), p.77-11, Article 77
• Main Authors: Wang, Yuan, Li, Jiming, Fang, Fang, Zhang, Ping, He, Jianjun, Pöhlker, Mira L., Henning, Silvia, Tang, Chenguang, Jia, Hailing, Wang, Yang, Jian, Bida, Shi, Jinsen, Huang, Jianping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 704/106/35/824; 704/172/169/824; Aerosols; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Atmospheric Sciences; Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts; Climatology; Clouds; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Global climate; Hygroscopicity; Parameterization; Precipitation
• ISSN: 2397-3722; 2397-3722
• DOI: 10.1038/s41612-024-00629-x

As a precursor process to cloud formation, aerosol activation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays a pivotal role in regional cloud-precipitation and global climate. However, its characteristics remain unclear due to the absence of targeted observations in the TP. We conducted a ground in-situ aerosol-cloud-precipitation experiment in the southern TP (GACPE-STP), thereby unveiling the aerosol activation characteristics in this crucial region. Our findings reveal a weak aerosol activation capacity with low hygroscopicity ( κ ) values of less than 0.1 through multi-method κ measurements, contrasting starkly with the widely recommended κ value of 0.3 for continental regions. A κ parameterization is developed for predicting aerosol activation in this region, which can significantly reduce the overestimations of cloud droplet number concentration and hence aerosol indirect effects caused by using the recommended κ of 0.3. These findings address the unclear characteristics of aerosol activation in the TP region, contributing to the enhancement of regional cloud precipitation and global climate simulations.