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The Effect of Aerosols on Fog Lifetime: Observational Evidence and Model Simulations
Author(s) -
Yan Shuqi,
Zhu Bin,
Zhu Tong,
Shi Chune,
Liu Duanyang,
Kang Hanqing,
Lu Wen,
Lu Chunsong
Publication year - 2021
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 - 10.1029/2020gl091156
Subject(s) - aerosol , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , weather research and forecasting model , duration (music) , fog , meteorology , climatology , physics , geology , acoustics
The aerosol–cloud interaction (ACI) and aerosol–radiation interaction (ARI) have notable influences on clouds, but their effects on fog are rarely analyzed before. Previous studies indicate that fog frequency in East China has been decreasing, and we further reveal that fog duration increases during 1960–2010. We hypothesize that this trend is related to the increase of aerosol pollution and perform WRF‐Chem simulations to study the ARI and ACI effects. Results show that ACI significantly advances fog formation, delays fog dissipation, and increases fog duration by about 1 h in a case study, while ARI has negligible effect. The more but smaller fog droplets produced in polluted conditions significantly inhibit droplet sedimentation and reduce solar radiation, therefore provide favorable conditions for the duration of fog. Under extremely polluted conditions, ACI effect also far overweighs ARI effect. To shorten the duration of dense fog, our findings suggest the necessity for mitigating emissions.