Open AccessA modeling study of the response of tropical deep convection to the increase of cloud condensation nuclei concentration: 2. Radiation and tropospheric chemistry
Author(s) -
Wang Chien
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2005jd005829
Subject(s) - cloud condensation nuclei , atmospheric sciences , troposphere , environmental science , radiative transfer , liquid water content , cloud computing , convection , condensation , scavenging , cloud physics , water vapor , aerosol , meteorology , chemistry , physics , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , computer science , antioxidant , operating system
Following the discussion in a previous companion paper on the responses of cloud dynamics and microphysics to the changes in initial concentration of aerosols suitable of serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN0), the consequent impacts of these responses on cloud radiative effect and tropospheric chemistry are studied using a three‐dimensional cloud‐resolving model. The radiative forcings of modeled cloud are found to generally increase with CCN0. This increase with CCN0 is more closely correlated to the changes in cloud coverage rather than other cloud properties. The enhanced convective strength of the modeled cloud with CCN0 affects the redistributions of chemical species including aerosols and water vapor. These impacts include an enhanced moistening of cloudy air while drying outside, an increase in the abundance of slowly soluble gases such as CO in the upper troposphere, and a simultaneous low availability of soluble gases attributed to the enhanced scavenging by cloud droplets. Additionally, the heterogeneous uptake of chemical species by ice particles is found to largely relate to the origins of these species and this uptake is also influenced by the changes in CCN0. Although the impacts of cloud on photochemistry are significant, these impacts appear to be not very sensitive to the changes in CCN0, caused primarily by the thick cloud layer in the modeled case.