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A modeling study of the effects of aerosols on clouds and precipitation over East Asia

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Abstract

The National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model (version 3.5) coupled with the Morrison–Gettelman two-moment cloud microphysics scheme is employed to simulate the aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in two numerical experiments, one representing present-day conditions (year 2000) and the other the pre-industrial conditions (year 1750) over East Asia by considering both direct and indirect aerosol effects. To isolate the aerosol effects, we used the same set of boundary conditions and only altered the aerosol emissions in both experiments. The simulated results show that the cloud microphysical properties are markedly affected by the increase in aerosols, especially for the column cloud droplet number concentration (DNC), liquid water path (LWP), and the cloud droplet effective radius (DER). With increased aerosols, DNC and LWP have been increased by 137% and 28%, respectively, while DER is reduced by 20%. Precipitation rates in East Asia and East China are reduced by 5.8% and 13%, respectively, by both the aerosol’s second indirect effect and the radiative forcing that enhanced atmospheric stability associated with the aerosol direct and first indirect effects. The significant reduction in summer precipitation in East Asia is also consistent with the weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon, resulting from the decreasing thermodynamic contrast between the Asian landmass and the surrounding oceans induced by the aerosol’s radiative effects. The increase in aerosols reduces the surface net shortwave radiative flux over the East Asia landmass, which leads to the reduction of the land surface temperature. With minimal changes in the sea surface temperature, hence, the weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon further enhances the reduction of summer precipitation over East Asia.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by China Special Fund for Nonprofit Organizations (GYHY200706036), National Basic Research Program of China (2011CB403406), CAS Science and Technology Specific Project (XDA05110101) and NSFC (40825008).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SKLLQG, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Xiaodong Liu, Xiaoning Xie & Zhi-Yong Yin

  2. National Center for Atmospheric Research, PO Box 3000, Boulder, CO, 80307, USA

    Changhai Liu & Andrew Gettelman

  3. University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA

    Zhi-Yong Yin

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  1. Xiaodong Liu
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  2. Xiaoning Xie
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  3. Zhi-Yong Yin
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  4. Changhai Liu
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  5. Andrew Gettelman
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Liu.

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Liu, X., Xie, X., Yin, ZY. et al. A modeling study of the effects of aerosols on clouds and precipitation over East Asia. Theor Appl Climatol 106, 343–354 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0436-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-011-0436-6

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