The relative importance of macrophysical and cloud albedo changes for aerosol-induced radiative effects in closed-cell stratocumulus: insight from the modelling of a case study

  • Grosvenor, DP
  • Field, PR
  • Hill, AA
  • Shipway, BJ
Publication date
April 2017
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH

Abstract

Aerosol–cloud interactions are explored using 1 km simulations of a case study of predominantly closed-cell SE Pacific stratocumulus clouds. The simulations include realistic meteorology along with newly implemented cloud microphysics and sub-grid cloud schemes. The model was critically assessed against observations of liquid water path (LWP), broadband fluxes, cloud fraction (fc), droplet number concentrations (Nd), thermodynamic profiles, and radar reflectivities. Aerosol loading sensitivity tests showed that at low aerosol loadings, changes to aerosol affected shortwave fluxes equally through changes to cloud macrophysical characteristics (LWP, fc) and cloud albedo changes due solely to Nd changes. However, at high aerosol loadings, only...

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