Open AccessEffect of Aerosol on Circulations and Precipitation in Deep Convective Clouds
Author(s) -
Seoung Soo Lee
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of the atmospheric sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.853
H-Index - 173
eISSN - 1520-0469
pISSN - 0022-4928
DOI - 10.1175/jas-d-11-0111.1
Subject(s) - mesoscale meteorology , convection , precipitation , atmospheric sciences , aerosol , mesoscale convective system , climatology , subsidence , environmental science , perturbation (astronomy) , synoptic scale meteorology , meteorology , geology , physics , geomorphology , structural basin , quantum mechanics
This study examines the effect of a mesoscale perturbation of aerosol on a larger-scale cloud system driven by deep convective clouds. An aerosol-perturbed domain of size 120 km is prescribed in the middle of the larger-scale domain of size 1100 km. Aerosol perturbations in the mesoscale domain result in an intensification of convection in a mesoscale convective system (MCS). This leads to an intensification of the larger-scale circulations, which in turn leads to an intensification of the larger-scale subsidence. While the invigorated convection enhances precipitation in the MCS, the intensified larger-scale subsidence acts to increase the larger-scale stability and thus to suppress convection and precipitation in the larger-scale domain. The suppression of precipitation in the larger-scale domain outweighs the enhancement of precipitation in the mesoscale domain, leading to suppressed precipitation over the entire domain. The ramifications of aerosol perturbations therefore need to be considered on scales much larger than the scale of the perturbation.