Physics
Scientific paper
Apr 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010georl..3707702a&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 37, Issue 7, CiteID L07702
Physics
7
Atmospheric Processes: Clouds And Aerosols, Atmospheric Processes: Climate Change And Variability (1616, 1635, 3309, 4215, 4513), Global Change: Regional Climate Change
Scientific paper
Simulations with the CAM3 climate model show that prescribed heating by anthropogenic aerosols significantly affects cloud cover. Globally the dominant effect is a decrease in mid-level clouds, which contributes to a semi-direct effect (SDE) that warms the surface by 0.5 W m-2. The SDE negates some of the impact of absorbing aerosol on surface fluxes, up to 50% over the Northern Hemisphere extratropical (NHE) land during JJA. The SDE-not direct effects-drives NHE JJA warming and a land-sea contrast in surface temperature that may help explain recent trends. This behavior is mainly due to 1. the trapping of near-surface moisture associated with aerosol induced enhanced lower tropospheric stability, which preferentially increases low cloud over the sea; and 2. a burn-off of cloud, especially over land, due to reduced relative humidity in the low and middle troposphere. These effects are due to vertical redistribution of energy rather than to the horizontal heterogeneity of aerosol forcing.
Allen Rosalind J.
Sherwood Steven C.
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