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The effects of atmospheric sulfur on the radiative properties of convective clouds: a limited area modeling study
Author(s) -
Andronache C.,
Donner L. J.,
Ramaswamy V.,
Seman C. J.,
Hemler R. S.
Publication year - 1998
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 - 10.1029/98gl01028
Subject(s) - atmosphere (unit) , sulfate , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , shortwave , radiative transfer , atmospheric model , convection , earth's energy budget , climatology , cloud physics , meteorology , geology , cloud computing , physics , radiation , chemistry , quantum mechanics , organic chemistry , computer science , operating system
Convective clouds in tropical areas can be sensitive to the atmospheric sulfate loading, particularly during enhanced sulfate episodes. This assertion is supported by simulations with a high resolution limited area non‐hydrostatic model (LAN) employing a detailed sulfate‐cloud microphysics scheme, applied to estimate the effects of sulfate on convective clouds in a case study from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). Results show that a change in sulfate loading for scenarios using the minimum to the maximum observed values produces a change in the average net flux of shortwave radiation above clouds. This time‐average change was estimated between −1.1 and −0.3 Wm −2 over the integration domain.