Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
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2009
10.5194/acpd-9-19387-2009
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/19387/2009/
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/19387/2009/acpd-9-19387-2009.html
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/19387/2009/acpd-9-19387-2009.pdf
19387
19433
2009-09-17
Modeling of Saharan dust outbreaks over the Mediterranean by RegCM3: case studies
M. Santese
monica.santese@le.infn.it
M. R. Perrone
A. S. Zakey
F. De Tomasi
F. Giorgi
CMCC-Centro Euromediterraneo per i Cambiamenti Climatici, 73100 Lecce, Italy
CNISM, Physics Department, Universita' del Salento, 73100 Lecce, Italy
Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, 34100 Trieste, Italy
The regional climate model RegCM3 coupled with a radiatively active
aerosol model with online feedback is used to investigate direct and
semi-direct radiative aerosol effects over the Sahara and Europe in
a test case of July 2003. The aerosol model includes dust particles in
addition to sulfates, hydrophobic and hydrophilic black carbon and
organic carbon. The role of the aerosol online feedback on the
radiation budget and the direct radiative forcing (short-wave and
long-wave) by dust particles are investigated by intercomparing
results from three experiments: REF, including all interactive aerosol
components, Exp1, not accounting for the aerosol radiative feedback,
and Exp2 not accounting for desert dust particles. The comparison of
results in the REF experiment with satellite observations, sun/sky
radiometer measurements, and lidar profiles at selected Central
Mediterranean sites reveals that the spatio-temporal evolution of the
aerosol optical depth is reasonably well reproduced by the model
during the entire month of July. Results for the dust outbreaks of 17
and 24 July, averaged over the simulation domain, show that the
daily-mean SW direct radiative forcing by all particles is
−24 W/m<sup>2</sup> and −3.4 W/m<sup>2</sup> on 17 July and
−25 W/m<sup>2</sup> and −3.5 W/m<sup>2</sup> on 24 July at the
surface and top of the atmosphere, respectively. This is partially
offset by a LW direct radiative forcing of ~30% at the surface
and of ~50% at the ToA. It is also shown that atmospheric
dynamics and hence dust production and advection processes are
dependent on the simulation assumptions and may significantly change
within few tens of kilometers. The comparison of REF and Exp1 shows
that the aerosol online feedback on the radiation budget decreases the
domain-average daily-mean value of the 2 m-temperature,
aerosol column burden (CB), and short-wave (SW) atmospheric forcing by
0.52°C, 14%, and 0.9%, respectively on 17 July
and by 0.39°C, 12% and 12%, respectively on 24
July. The comparison of REF and Exp2 reveals that on 17 July,
radiatively-active dust particles decrease the daily-mean 2-m
temperature averaged over the whole simulation domain by 0.12°C even
if are responsible for 99.8% and 97% of the daily-mean aerosol
column burden and SW atmospheric forcing, respectively.
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