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Clean and polluted clouds: Relationships among pollution, ice clouds, and precipitation in South America
Author(s) -
Jiang Jonathan H.,
Su Hui,
Schoeberl Mark R.,
Massie Steven T.,
Colarco Peter,
Platnick Steven,
Livesey Nathaniel J.
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1029/2008gl034631
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , dry season , pollution , ice core , climatology , meteorology , geology , geography , ecology , cartography , biology
We analyze nearly‐simultaneous measurements of ice clouds and pollutants along satellite tracks. We use Aura MLS CO and ice water content measurements at 215 hPa to classify ice clouds as “clean” or “polluted”. We then examine Aqua MODIS ice particle effective radius (r e ) and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) along with TRMM precipitation to investigate how pollution changes ice particle size and precipitation. We find suppressed precipitation and reduced r e associated with polluted clouds during the dry season in South America when there is a strong positive correlation between the CO and AOT. In contrast, during the wet season, we find little difference in ice particle size and precipitation between the polluted clouds and the clean clouds, as indicated by the CO levels, when the AOT is significantly lower than that in the dry season.