Interactions of Aerosols, Clouds and Precipitation in the Earth System
EMSL Project ID
47994
Abstract
Aerosols are important, and their sources and sinks are changing in response to human activity. Aerosols--small solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere--influence the planet in many ways. Growing evidence points to aerosols, especially anthropogenic ones, playing important roles in the Earth climate system. A better characterization of aerosols properties and their influence on physical processes is necessary in global climate models in order to understand how these aerosols have affected the Earth climate and to project future changes with more confidence, There has been a substantial increase in our understanding the properties of aerosols in recent decades due to intensive field experiments, remote sensing and lab measurements in controlled situations, and this improvement in knowledge has produce more elaborate treatments of aerosols on processes (radiation and clouds). Based on these efforts, the state-of-the-art global climate model, Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) in the Community Earth System Model (CESM1) now has an aerosol module with an explicit interaction with atmospheric radiation and clouds. Despite improved understanding, interactions with cloud and precipitation in global climate models are one of the major sources of uncertainty in global climate change projections. With EMSL's computational resources, we will (1) develop/evaluate new capabilities in aerosol process in such as Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) in Community Earth System Model (CESM1), and (2) conduct a series of climate simulations in various configurations focusing on the sensitivity of historical, present day, an projected future climate to aerosol emissions and the representation of aerosol processes.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2013-10-01
End Date
2015-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator(s)
Team Members