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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

Team

Principal Investigator

Philip Rasch
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Co-Investigator(s)

Po Lun Ma
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Team Members

Michael Depuy
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Benjamin Kravitz
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Jihyeon So
Institution
Hanyang University

Lavon Conlin
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

James Foucar
Institution
Sandia National Laboratory

Hui Wan
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Patrick Worley
Institution
PHWorley Consulting

Susannah Burrows
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Kai Zhang
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Balwinder Singh
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Hailong Wang
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Jin-Ho Yoon
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

ManishKumar Shrivastava
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Richard Easter
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Related Publications

McCoy DT, SM Burrows, R Wood, DP Grosvenor, SM Elliott, P-L Ma, PJ Rasch, and DL Hartmann. 2015. "Natural aerosols explain seasonal and spatial patterns of Southern Ocean cloud albedo." Science Advances 1:e1500157-. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1500157
Shrivastava MKB, RC Easter, Jr, X Liu, A Zelenyuk, B Singh, K Zhang, PL Ma, D Chand, SJ Ghan, JL Jiminez, Q Zhang, JD Fast, PJ Rasch, and P Tiitta. 2015. "Global transformation and fate of SOA: Implications of Low Volatility SOA and Gas-Phase Fragmentation Reactions ." Journal of Geophysical Research. D. (Atmospheres) 120(9):4169-4195. doi:10.1002/2014JD022563
Wang H., R.C. Easter, R. Zhang, P. Ma, B. Singh, K. Zhang, and D. Ganguly, et al. 2020. "Aerosols in the E3SM Version 1: New Developments and Their Impacts on Radiative Forcing." Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 12, no. 1:Article No. e2019MS001851. PNNL-SA-146124. doi:10.1029/2019MS001851
Zhang R, H Wang, DA Hegg, Y Qian, SJ Doherty, C Dang, PL Ma, PJ Rasch, and Q Fu. 2015. "Quantifying sources of black carbon in Western North America using observationally based analysis and an emission tagging technique in the Community Atmosphere Model." Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 15(22):12805-12822. doi:10.5194/acp-15-12805-2015