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Enhanced aerosol-cloud relationships in more stable and adiabatic clouds

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Abstract

Modification of cloud microphysics and cloud albedo by cloud-active aerosol is generally identified and accepted, but the nature and magnitude of aerosol-cloud interactions are vaguely understood and thought to include a myriad of processes that vary regionally and confound the application of simple physical models of cloud-aerosol sensitivity. This paper presents observations demonstrating that cloud top stability through its regulation of mixing and vertical development is one of the critical mechanisms that regulate cloud response to cloud-active aerosol in some cloud systems. Strong above-cloud inversions are shown to buffer marine stratocumulus from the effects of mixing with drier, warmer inversion air. This buffering reduces the variability of the cloud liquid water path (LWP) and enables the clouds to remain nearly adiabatic. While weaker above-cloud inversions in continental stratocumulus promote variability in the LWP and sub-adiabatic LWPs, stronger inversions in marine stratocumulus enables a relatively adiabatic existence that increases the relationship of cloud microphysical alteration to cloud-active aerosol. This study has important implications for Geoengineering in that it demonstrates that cloud systems overlain by strong thermal inversions are more likely to respond predictably to intentional manipulation of the in-cloud concentration of cloud-active aerosol.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Atmospheric Environmental Sciences, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung, Korea

    Yoo-Jun Kim & Byung-Gon Kim

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Mark Miller

  3. Atmospheric Science Research Center, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    Qilong Min

  4. Air Quality Research Department, National Institute of Environmental Research, Incheon, Korea

    Chang-Keun Song

  5. Department of Atmospheric Environmental Sciences, Gangneung-Wonju National University, 123, Jibyun, Gangneung, 210-702, Korea

    Byung-Gon Kim

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  1. Yoo-Jun Kim
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  2. Byung-Gon Kim
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  3. Mark Miller
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  4. Qilong Min
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  5. Chang-Keun Song
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Correspondence to Byung-Gon Kim.

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Kim, YJ., Kim, BG., Miller, M. et al. Enhanced aerosol-cloud relationships in more stable and adiabatic clouds. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 48, 283–293 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-012-0028-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-012-0028-0

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