Premium
Observational evidence for aerosol invigoration in shallow cumulus downstream of Mount Kilauea
Author(s) -
Mace G. G.,
Abernathy A. C.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2016gl067830
Subject(s) - aerosol , geology , boundary layer , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , planetary boundary layer , meteorology , geography , physics , thermodynamics
Knowledge of how marine boundary layer (MBL) shallow cumulus clouds respond to changes in aerosol is central to understanding how MBL clouds modulate the climate system. Mount Kilauea on the island of Hawaii began erupting in 2008 injecting substantial SO 2 into the marine boundary layer creating a unique natural laboratory. Examining data from approximately 600 passes of the A‐Train downstream of Mount Kilauea over a 3 year period and separating data into aerosol optical depth quartiles, we find an unambiguous increase in marine boundary cloud top height and an increase in surface wind speed as aerosol increases while the radar reflectivity does not change substantially. We conclude that increased aerosols may have caused invigoration of the MBL clouds. Additionally, we find that increases in sub 1 km cloud fraction combined with increasing aerosol explain the increased visible reflectance suggesting that evidence for the so‐called first aerosol indirect effect should be reexamined.