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Process Modeling of Aerosol-cloud Interaction in Summertime Precipitating Shallow Cumulus over the Western North Atlantic
  • +26
  • Xiang-Yu Li,
  • Hailong Wang,
  • Matthew W. Christensen,
  • Jingyi Chen,
  • Shuaiqi Tang,
  • Simon Kirschler,
  • Ewan Crosbie,
  • Luke D. Ziemba,
  • David Painemal,
  • Andrea Corral,
  • Kayla Ann McCauley,
  • Sanja Dmitrovic,
  • Armin Sorooshian,
  • Marta A Fenn,
  • joseph schlosser,
  • Snorre Stamnes,
  • Johnathan Hair,
  • Brian Cairns,
  • Richard H Moore,
  • Richard Ferrare,
  • Michael Shook,
  • Yonghoon Choi,
  • Glenn S. Diskin,
  • Joshua Paul DiGangi,
  • John B. Nowak,
  • Claire E Robinson,
  • Taylor Shingler,
  • Kenneth L Thornhill,
  • Christiane Voigt
Xiang-Yu Li
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Hailong Wang
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Matthew W. Christensen
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Jingyi Chen
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Shuaiqi Tang
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
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Simon Kirschler
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
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Ewan Crosbie
NASA Langley Research Center
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Luke D. Ziemba
NASA Langley Research Center
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David Painemal
NASA Langley Research Center, Analytical Mechanics Associates
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Andrea Corral
University of Arizona
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Kayla Ann McCauley
The University of Arizona
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Sanja Dmitrovic
The University of Arizona
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Armin Sorooshian
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
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Marta A Fenn
NASA Langley Research Center
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joseph schlosser
University of Arizona
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Snorre Stamnes
NASA Langley Research Center
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Johnathan Hair
NASA Langley Research Center
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Brian Cairns
NASA Goddard Insitute for Space Studies
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Richard H Moore
NASA Langley Research Center
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Richard Ferrare
NASA Langley Research Center
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Michael Shook
Langley Research Center
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Yonghoon Choi
NASA Langley Research Center, Analytical Mechanics Associates
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Glenn S. Diskin
NASA Langley Research Center
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Joshua Paul DiGangi
NASA Langley Research Center
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John B. Nowak
NASA Langley Research Center
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Claire E Robinson
NASA Langley Research Center, Analytical Mechanics Associates
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Taylor Shingler
NASA Langley
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Kenneth L Thornhill
NASA Langley Research Center
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Christiane Voigt
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
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Abstract

Process modeling of aerosol-cloud interaction is essential to bridging gaps between observational analysis and climate modeling of aerosol effects in the Earth system and eventually reducing climate projection uncertainties. In this study, we examine aerosol-cloud interaction in summertime precipitating shallow cumuli observed during the Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE). Aerosols and precipitating shallow cumuli were extensively observed with in-situ and remote-sensing instruments during two research flight cases on 02 June and 07 June, respectively, during the ACTIVATE summer 2021 deployment phase. We perform observational analysis and large-eddy simulation (LES) of aerosol effect on precipitating cumulus in these two cases. Given the measured aerosol size distributions and meteorological conditions, LES is able to reproduce the observed cloud properties by aircraft such as liquid water content (LWC), cloud droplet number concentration (Nc) and effective radius reff. However, it produces smaller liquid water path (LWP) and larger Nc compared to the satellite retrievals. Both 02 and 07 June cases are over warm waters of the Gulf Stream and have a cloud top height over 3 km, but the 07 June case is more polluted and has larger LWC. We find that the aerosol-induced LWP adjustment is dominated by precipitation and is anticorrelated with cloud-top entrainment for both cases. A negative cloud fraction adjustment due to an increase of aerosol number concentration is also shown in the simulations.
22 Jun 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
23 Jun 2023Published in ESS Open Archive