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Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 9, 20853-20880, 2009
www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/20853/2009/ doi:10.5194/acpd-9-20853-2009 © Author(s) 2009. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
Effects of absorbing aerosols in cloudy skies: a satellite study over the Atlantic Ocean
1Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
2University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
3Hadley Centre, Met Office, Exeter, UK
Abstract. Aerosol effects, direct as well as indirect, constitute one of the biggest sources of uncertainty when it comes to quantifying human forcing of climate change. Understanding these will thus increase the credibility of climate predictions. This study focuses on aerosol effects when absorbing aerosols reside in cloudy skies. In cloudfree conditions, aerosols usually exert a negative radiative forcing (RF) at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) due to their scattering properties. When located above clouds, absorbing aerosols can reduce the shortwave local planetary albedo α, resulting in an often significant local positive direct radiative forcing (DRF). A method for deriving the aerosol radiative effects of absorbing aerosols in cloudy situations from satellite retrievals is presented. Data of 2005 and 2006 from various sensors aboard satellites of the "A-Train" constellation, restricted to the tropical and subtropical Atlantic ocean, is used. A multiple linear regression is performed to identify the dependence of α in cloudy scenes on cloud liquid water path (LWP) and aerosol optical depth (AOD), using the OMI UV-Aerosolindex (UV-AI) as an indicator for absorbing aerosols. The results show an increase of α with increasing aerosol load, and a relative decrease of α with increasing amount of absorbing aerosols in cloudy scenes. This allows to derive the direct aerosol effect of absorbing aerosols above clouds, with the effect of aerosol absorption over clouds in the Atlantic contributing +0.08±1.2×10-3Wm-2 to the global TOA RF.
Citation: Peters, K., Quaas, J., and Bellouin, N.: Effects of absorbing aerosols in cloudy skies: a satellite study over the Atlantic Ocean, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 9, 20853-20880, doi:10.5194/acpd-9-20853-2009, 2009.