Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 9 4 2009 10.5194/acpd-9-14529-2009 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/14529/2009/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/14529/2009/acpd-9-14529-2009.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/14529/2009/acpd-9-14529-2009.pdf 14529 14570 2009-07-03 Effect of biomass burning on marine stratocumulus clouds off the California coast J. Brioude O. R. Cooper G. Feingold M. Trainer S. R. Freitas D. Kowal J.K. Ayers E. Prins P. Minnis S. A. McKeen G. J. Frost E.-Y. Hsie Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA Chemical Sciences Division, Earth System Research Lab., NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA Center for Weather Forecasting and Climate Studies, INPE, Cachoeira Paulista, Brazil National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, USA Science Systems and Applications Incorporated, Hampton Virginia, USA UW-Madison SSEC/CIMSS – Consultant, Grass Valley, CA, USA NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA Aerosol-cloud interactions are considered to be one of the most important and least known forcings in the climate system. Biomass burning aerosols are of special interest due to their radiative impact (direct and indirect effect) and their potential to increase in the future due to climate change. Combining data from Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) and MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) with passive tracers from the FLEXPART Lagrangian Particle Dispersion Model, the impact of biomass burning on marine stratocumulus clouds has been examined in June and July of 2006–2008 off the California coast. Using a continental tracer, the indirect effect of biomass burning aerosols has been isolated by comparing the average cloud fraction and cloud albedo for different meteorological situations, and for clean versus polluted (in terms of biomass burning) continental air masses. Within a 500 km-wide band along the coast of California, biomass burning aerosols, which tend to reside above the marine boundary layer, increased the cloud fraction by 0.143, and the cloud albedo by 0.038. The combined effect is an indirect radiative forcing of −7.45% (cooling effect) on average, with a bias due to meteorology of +0.89%. 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