Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 8 1 2008 10.5194/acpd-8-549-2008 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/549/2008/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/549/2008/acpd-8-549-2008.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/8/549/2008/acpd-8-549-2008.pdf 549 568 2008-01-10 Observations of convective clouds generated by solar heating of dark smoke plumes L. Klüser lars.klueser@dlr.de D. Rosenfeld A. Macke T. Holzer-Popp German Aerospace Center (DLR), German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD), Weßling, Germany Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel Leibniz-Institute of Marine Sciences, IFM-GEOMAR, Kiel, Germany The SEVIRI instrument on the Meteosat Second Generation satellite with both fine spatial and temporal resolution allows to detect and follow the dynamics of fast developing meteorological events like spreading smoke plumes and the lifecycles of convective clouds. Smoke plumes have the ability to change the atmospheric heat content due to absorption and reduced reflection of solar radiation. By these means they can alter the temperature profile of the atmosphere and trigger convective clouds. A heavy smoke plume emerging from burning Lebanese oil tanks and spreading over adjacent deserts on 17 July 2006 has been observed as an example of such an effect. This study suggests a physical explanation of the observed convection along the edge of the smoke plume, namely the strong thermal contrast resulting from solar heating of the smoke layer. Ackerman, A. S., Toon, O. B., Stevens, D. E., Heymsfield, A. J., Ramanathan, V., and Welton, E. J.: Reduction of tropical cloudiness by soot, Science, 288, 1042–1047, 2000. Barnes, W. L., Pagano, T. S., and Salomonson, V. V.: Prelaunch characteristics of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on EOS-AM1, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 36, 1088–1100, 1998. Hobbs, P. V., Reid, J. S., Kotchenruther, R. A., Ferek, R. J., and Weiss, R.: Direct radiative forcing by smoke from biomass burning, Science, 275, 1777–1778, 1997. Kaufman, Y. J. and Fraser, R. S.: The effect of smoke particles on clouds and climate forcing, Science, 277, 1636–1639, 1997. Koren, I., Kaufman, Y. J., Remer, L. A., and Martins, J. V.: Measurement of the effect of Amazon smoke on inhibition of cloud formation, Science, 303, 1342–1345, 2004. Ramanathan, A., Crutzen, P. J., Kiehl, J. T., and Rosenfeld, D.: Aerosols, climate, and the hydrological cycle, Science, 294, 2119–2124, 2002. Rosenfeld, D. and Lensky, I.M.: Satellite-based insights into precipitation formation processes in continental and maritime convective clouds, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 79, 2457–2476, 1998. Rosenfeld, D.: Aerosol-cloud interactions control of earth radiation and latent heat release budgets, Space Sci. Rev., 125, 149–157, 2006. Rudich, Y., Sagi, A., and Rosenfeld, D.: Influence of the Kuwait oil fire plume (1991) on the microphysical development of clouds, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D15), 4478, doi:10.1029/2003JD003472, 2003. Schmetz, J., Pili, P., Tjemkes, S., Just, D., Kerkmann, J., Rota, S., and Ratier, A.: An Introduction to Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83, 977–992, 2002. Sherwood, S.: Aerosols and ice particle size in tropical cumulonimbus, J. Climate, 15, 1051–1063, 2002. Trentmann, J., Früh, B., Boucher, O., Trautmann, T., and Andreae, M. O.: Three-dimensional solar radiation effects on the actinic flux field in a biomass-burning plume, J. Geophys. Res., 108(D17), 4558, doi:10.1029/2003JD003422, 2003. Twomey, S.: Pollution and the planetary albedo, Atmos. Environ., 8, 1251–1256, 1974. Twomey, S.: Atmospheric aerosols, Elsevier, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1977. Wielicki, B. A., Harrrison, E. F., Cess, R. D., King, M. D., and Randall, D. A.: Mission to planet earth: Role of clouds and radiation in climate, Bull. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 76, 2125–2153, 1995.