Aerosol impacts on drizzle properties in warm clouds from ARM Mobile Facility maritime and continental deployments

We have extensively evaluated the response of cloud base drizzle rate (Rcb; mm d−1) in warm clouds to liquid water path (LWP; g m−2) and to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration (NCCN; cm−3), an aerosol proxy. This evaluation is based on a 19 month long data set of Doppler radar, lida...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres 2014-04, Vol.119 (7), p.4136-4148
Main Authors: Mann, Julian A. L., Christine Chiu, J., Hogan, Robin J., O'Connor, Ewan J., L'Ecuyer, Tristan S., Stein, Thorwald H. M., Jefferson, Anne
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
aerosol-cloud interaction
Aerosols
Aircraft
Azores
Climate models
Clouds
Computer simulation
drizzle
Geophysics
ground-based
Lidar
Mathematical models
Precipitation
Radiation measurement
Rain
Supersaturation
susceptibility
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Summary:We have extensively evaluated the response of cloud base drizzle rate (Rcb; mm d−1) in warm clouds to liquid water path (LWP; g m−2) and to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) number concentration (NCCN; cm−3), an aerosol proxy. This evaluation is based on a 19 month long data set of Doppler radar, lidar, microwave radiometers, and aerosol observing systems from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility deployments at the Azores and in Germany. Assuming 0.55% supersaturation to calculate NCCN, we found a power law Rcb=0.0015±0.0009⋅LWP1.68±0.05NCCN−0.66±0.08, indicating that Rcb decreases by a factor of 2–3 as NCCN increases from 200 to 1000 cm−3 for fixed LWP. Additionally, the precipitation susceptibility to NCCN ranges between 0.5 and 0.9, in agreement with values from simulations and aircraft measurements. Surprisingly, the susceptibility of the probability of precipitation from our analysis is much higher than that from CloudSat estimates but agrees well with simulations from a multiscale high‐resolution aerosol‐climate model. Although scale issues are not completely resolved in the intercomparisons, our results are encouraging, suggesting that it is possible for multiscale models to accurately simulate the response of LWP to aerosol perturbations. Key Points Significant warm‐rain suppression with increasing aerosolAerosol impact on rain rate agrees with aircraft measurements and modelsAerosol impact on rain probability agrees well with multiscale climate model
ISSN:2169-897X
2169-8996
DOI:10.1002/2013JD021339