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On smoke suppression of clouds in Amazonia
Author(s) -
Feingold Graham,
Jiang Hongli,
Harrington Jerry Y.
Publication year - 2005
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 - 10.1029/2004gl021369
Subject(s) - cloud cover , smoke , aerosol , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , boundary layer , convective boundary layer , convection , large eddy simulation , radiative transfer , cloud computing , meteorology , climatology , amazon rainforest , planetary boundary layer , geology , geography , mechanics , physics , turbulence , ecology , quantum mechanics , computer science , biology , operating system
We use large eddy simulations of smoke‐cloud interactions to demonstrate the relative importance of various factors responsible for cloud suppression in the biomass burning regions of Amazonia. The model includes unprecedented treatment of coupled smoke aerosol‐cloud‐radiative feedbacks in a 3‐dimensional model that resolves scales of ∼100s m. It is shown that the vertical distribution of smoke aerosol in the convective boundary layer is crucial to determining whether cloudiness is reduced; Smoke aerosol emitted at the surface in a daytime convective boundary layer may reduce or increase cloudiness whereas smoke aerosol residing in the layer where clouds tend to form will reduce cloudiness. On the other hand, the reduction in surface latent and sensible heat fluxes associated with biomass burning is sufficient by itself to substantially reduce cloudiness.