The effect of aerosol representation on cloud microphysical properties in Northeast Asia

Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics volume 123, pages181–194(2014)Cite this article

Abstract

This study performed a three-dimensional regional-scale simulation of aerosol and cloud fields using a meso-scale non-hydrostatic model with a bin-based cloud microphysics. The representation of aerosols in the model has been improved to account for more realistic multi-modal size distribution and multiple chemical compositions. Two case studies for shallow stratocumulus over Northeast Asia in March 2005 were conducted with different aerosol conditions to evaluate model performance. Improved condensation nuclei (CN) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are attributable to the newly constructed aerosol size distribution. The simulated results of cloud microphysical properties (cloud droplet effective radius, liquid water path, and optical thickness) with improved CN/CCN number are close to the retrievals from satellite-based observation. The effects of aerosol on the microphysical properties of shallow stratocumulus are investigated by model simulation, in terms of columnar aerosol number concentration. Enhanced aerosol number concentration results in increased liquid water path in humid case, but invariant liquid water path in dry case primarily due to precipitation occurrence. The changes of cloud microphysical properties are more predominant for small aerosol burden than for large aerosol burden with the retarded changes in cloud mass and size due to inactive condensation and collision-coalescence processes. Quantitative evaluation of sensitivity factor between aerosol and cloud microphysical properties indicates a strong aerosol-cloud interaction in Northeast Asian region.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

References

  1. Abdul-Razzak H, Ghan SJ (2000) A parameterization of aerosol activation: 2. Multiple aerosol types. J Geophys Res 105:6837–6844

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Albrecht BA (1989) Aerosols, cloud microphysics, and fractional cloudiness. Science 245:1227–1230

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Andreae MO, Rosenfeld D (2008) Aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. Part 1. The nature and sources of cloud-active aerosols. Earth Sci Rev 89:13–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Berg W, L’Ecuyer T, Heever S (2008) Evidence for the impact of aerosols on the onset and microphysical properties of rainfall from a combination of satellite observations and cloud-resolving model simulations. J Geophys Res. doi:10.1029/2007JD009649

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bréon FM, Tanré D, Generoso S (2002) Aerosol effect on cloud droplet size monitored from satellite. Science 295:834–838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Choi IJ, Kim SW, Kim J, Yoon SC, Kim MH, Sugimoto N, Kondo Y, Miyazaki Y, Moon KJ, Han JS (2008) Characteristics of the transport and vertical structure of aerosols during ABC-EAREX2005. Atmos Environ 42:8513–8523

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Chuang CC, Penner JE, Taylor KE, Grossman AS, Walton JJ (1997) An assessment of the radiative effects of anthropogenic sulfate. J Geophys Res 102:3761–3778

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. d’Almeida GA, Koepke P, Shettle EP (1991) Atmospheric aerosols: Global climatology and radiative characteristics. A. Deepak Publishing, Hampton, p 561

    Google Scholar 

  9. Fan J, Zhang R, Li G, Tao WK (2007) Effects of aerosols and relative humidity on cumulus clouds. J Geophys Res. doi:10.1029/2006JD008136

    Google Scholar 

  10. Feingold G (2003) Modeling of the first indirect effect: analysis of measurement requirements. Geophys Res Lett. doi:10.1029/2003GL017967

    Google Scholar 

  11. Feingold G, Kreidenweis SM (2002) Cloud processing of aerosol as modeled by a large eddy simulation with coupled microphysics and aqueous chemistry. J Geophys Res doi:10.1029/2002JD002054

  12. Ghan S, Laulainen N, Easter R, Wagener R, Nemesure S, Champman E, Zhang W, Leung R (2001) Evaluation of aerosol direct radiative forcing in MIRAGE. J Geophys Res 106:5295–5316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Herzog M, Weisenstein DK, Penner JE (2004) A dynamic aerosol module for global chemical transport models: model description. J Geophys Res 109:D18202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Iguchi T, Nakajima T, Khain AP, Saito K, Takemura T, Suzuki K (2008) Modeling the influence of aerosols on cloud microphysical properties in the east Asia region using a mesoscale model coupled with a bin-based cloud microphysics scheme. J Geophys Res doi:10.1029/2007JD009774

  15. Khain AP, Sednev I (1995) Simulation of hydrometeor size spectra evolution by water-water, ice-water, and ice-ice interactions. Atmos Res 36:107–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Khain AP, Pokrovsky A, Sednev I (1999) Some effects of cloud-aerosol interaction on cloud microphysics structure and precipitation formation: numerical experiments with a spectral microphysics cloud ensemble model. Atmos Res 52:195–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Khairoutdinov M, Kogan Y (2000) A new cloud physics parameterization in a large-eddy simulation model of marine stratocumulus. Mon Wea Rev 128:229–243

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Kim S, Chun Y (2013) Physical and chemical features of Asian dust aerosol mixed with haze during 14–19 March 2009. APJAS 49:543–550

    Google Scholar 

  19. Kim SW, Yoon SC, Kim J, Kim SY (2007) Seasonal and monthly variations of columnar aerosol optical properties over East Asia determined from multi-year MODIS, LIDAR and AERONET sun/sky radiometer measurements. Atmos Environ 41:1634–1651

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kim JY, Kim SW, Ghim YS, Song CH, Yoon SC (2012a) Aerosol properties at gosan in Korea during two pollution episodes caused by contrasting weather conditions. APJAS 48:25–33

    Google Scholar 

  21. Kim YJ, Kim BG, Miller M, Min Q, Song CK (2012b) Enhanced aerosol-cloud relationships in more stable and adiabatic clouds. APJAS 48:283–293

    Google Scholar 

  22. Lin H, Leaitch WR (1997) Development of an in-cloud aerosol activation parameterization for climate modeling. Proceedings of the WMO Workshop on Measurement of Cloud Properties for Forecasts of Weather, Air Quality and Climate, Mexico City, June, pp 328–335

  23. Lohnamm U, Feichter J (2005) Global indirect aerosol effects: a review. Atmos Chem Phys 5:715–737

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Lynn BH, Khain AP, Dudhia J, Rosenfeld D, Pokrovsky A, Seifert A (2005) Spectral (bin) microphysics coupled with a Mesoscale Model (MM5). Part I: model description and first results. Mon Wea Rev 133:44–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. McFiggans G, Artaxo P, Baltensperger U, Coe H, Facchini MC, Feingold G, Fuzzi S, Gysel M, Laaksonen A, Lohmann U, Mentel TF, Murphy DM, O’Dowd CD, Snider JR, Weingartner E (2006) The effect of physical and chemical aerosol properties on warm cloud droplet activation. Atmos Chem Phys 6:2593–2649

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Mochida M, Umemoto N, Kawamura K, Lim HJ, Turpin BJ (2007) Bimodal size distributions of various organic acids and fatty acids in the marine atmosphere: influence of anthropogenic aerosols, Asian dusts, and sea spray off the coast of East Asia. J Geophys Res 112:D15209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Morrison H, Gettelman A (2008) A new two-moment bulk stratiform cloud microphysics scheme in the Community Atmosphere Model, version 3 (CAM3). Part I: description and numerical tests. J Clim 21:3642–3659

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Nakajima TY, Nakajima T (1995) Wide-area determination of cloud microphysical properties from NOAA AVHRR measurements for FIRE and ASTEX regions. J Atmos Sci 52:4043–4059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Nakajima T, Schulz M (2009) What do we know about large-scale changes of aerosols, clouds, and the radiation budget? Clouds in the perturbed climate system: their relationship to energy balance, atmospheric dynamics, and precipitation. In: Heintzenberg J, Charlson RJ (eds) Strüngmann Forum reports. MIT press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  30. Nakajima T, Higurashi A, Kawamoto K, Penner JE (2001) A possible correlation between satellite-derived cloud and aerosol microphysical parameters. Geophys Res Lett 28:1171–1174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Nakajima TY, Uchiyama A, Takamura T, Tsujioka N, Takemura T, Nakajima T (2005) Comparisons of warm cloud properties obtained from satellite, ground, and aircraft measurements during APEX intensive observation period in 2000 and 2001. J Meteorol Soc Japan 83:1085–1095

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Nakajima T, Yoon SC, Ramanathan V, Shi GY, Takemura T, Higurashi A, Takamura T, Aoki K, Sohn BJ, Kim SW, Tsuruta H, Sugimoto N, Shimizu A, Tanimoto H, Sawa Y, Lin NH, Lee CT, Goto D, Schutgens N (2007) Overview of the ABC-EAREX2005 regional experiment and a study of the aerosol direct radiative forcing in the East Asia. J Geophys Res 112:D24S91

    Google Scholar 

  33. Numaguti A, Takahashi M, Sumi A (1995) Climate system dynamics and modeling, in Development of an Atmospheric General Circulation Model, edited by T. Matsuno, University of Tokyo, pp 1–27

  34. Pauluis O, Garner S (2006) Sensitivity of radiative-convective equilibrium simulations to horizontal resolution. J Atmos Sci 63:1910–1923

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Penner JE, Chuang CC, Grant K (1998) Climate forcing by carbonaceous and sulfate aerosols. Clim Dynam 14:839–851

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Rasch PJ, Kristjánsson JE (1998) A comparison of the CCM3 model climate using diagnosed and predicted condensate parameterizations. J Clim 11:1587–1614

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Rotstayn LD, Liu Y (2005) A smaller global estimate of the second indirect aerosol effect. Geophys Res Lett 32:L05708. doi:10.1029/2004GL021922

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Saito K, Fujita T, Yamada Y, Ishida J, Kumagai Y, Aranami K, Ohmori S, Nagasawa R, Kumagai S, Muroi C, Kato T, Eito H, Yamazaki Y (2006) The operational JMA nonhydrostatic model. Mon Wea Rev. doi:10.1175/MWR3120.1

    Google Scholar 

  39. Sekiguchi M, Nakajima T (2008) A k-distribution-based radiation code and its computational optimization for an atmospheric general circulation model. J Quant Spectrosc Radiat Trasnfer 109:2779–2793

    Article  Google Scholar 

  40. Sekiguchi M, Nakajima T, Suzuki K, Kawamoto K, Higurashi A, Rosenfeld D, Sano I, Mukai S (2003) A study of the direct and indirect effects of aerosols using global satellite data sets of aerosol and cloud parameters. J Geophys Res doi:10.1029/2002JD003359

  41. Stier P, Feichter J, Kinne S, Kloster S, Vignati E, Wilson J, Ganzeveld L, Tegen I, Werner M, Balkanski Y, Schulz M, Boucher O, Minikin A, Petzold A (2005) The aerosol climate model ECHAM5-HAM. Atmos Chem Phys 5:1125–1156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Storelvmo T, Kristjansson JE, Ghan SJ, Kirkevag A, Seland Ø, Iversen T (2006) Predicting cloud droplet number concentration in community atmosphere model (CAM)-Oslo. J Geophys Res 111:D24208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Suzuki K, Nakajima T, Nakajima TY, Stephens GL (2010) Effect of the droplet activation process on microphysical properties of warm clouds. Environ Res Lett 5:024012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Takemura T, Okamoto H, Maruyama Y, Numaguti A, Higurashi A, Nakajima T (2000) Global three-dimensional simulation of aerosol optical thickness distribution of various origins. J Geophys Res 105:17853–17874

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Takemura T, Nakajima T, Dubovik O, Holben BN, Kinne S (2002) Single-scattering albedo and radiative forcing of various aerosol species with a global three-dimensional model. J Clim 15:333–352

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Takemura T, Nozawa T, Emori S, Nakajima TY, Nakajima T (2005) Simulation of climate response to aerosol direct and indirect effects with aerosol transport-radiation model. J Geophys Res 110:D02202

    Google Scholar 

  47. Twomey S (1974) Pollution and the planetary albedo. Atmos Environ 8:1251–1256

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Yoon SC, Kim SW, Choi SJ, Choi IJ (2010) Regional-scale relationships between aerosol and summer monsoon circulation, and precipitation over northeast Asia. APJAS 46:279–286

    Google Scholar 

  49. Yum S, Roberts G, Kim J, Song K, Kim D (2007) Submicron aerosol size distributions and cloud condensation nuclei concentrations measured at Gosan, Korea, during the Atmospheric Brown Clouds-East Asian Regional Experiment 2005. J Geophys Res 112:D22S32

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the BK21+ program of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University and by the Korea Meteorological Administration Research and Development Program under Grant CATER 2012-3020. We wish to acknowledge Prof. Toshihiko Takemura for providing SPRINTARS simulation dataset.

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction System, 35 Boranae-ro 5 gil, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 156-849, Korea

    In-Jin Choi

  2. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, 599 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 151-747, Korea

    Sang-Woo Kim & Soon-Chang Yoon

  3. Earth Sciences Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 613.1, Greenbelt, MD, 20771, USA

    Takamichi Iguchi

  4. Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute (AORI), University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8568, Japan

    Teruyuki Nakajima

Authors
  1. In-Jin Choi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Takamichi Iguchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Sang-Woo Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Teruyuki Nakajima
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Soon-Chang Yoon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sang-Woo Kim.

Additional information

Responsible editor: S. Hong.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Choi, IJ., Iguchi, T., Kim, SW. et al. The effect of aerosol representation on cloud microphysical properties in Northeast Asia. Meteorol Atmos Phys 123, 181–194 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-013-0288-y

Download citation

Keywords

  • Aerosol Optical Depth
  • Number Concentration
  • Condensation Nucleus
  • Cloud Droplet
  • Cloud Condensation Nucleus