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Updated: Nov 17, 2025
09:34
Extraction and Characterization of Surfactants from Atmospheric Aerosols
Published on: April 21, 2017
17.1K
Studying Scale Dependency of Aerosol Cloud Interactions using Multi-Scale Cloud Formulations
Timothy Glotfelty1, Kiran Alapaty2, Jian He3
1Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Monthly Weather Review
|February 19, 2021
Summary
Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) show scale-dependent impacts on weather. Subgrid-scale processes dominate at coarser resolutions, while grid-scale processes are key at finer resolutions, complicating ACI understanding in models.
Area of Science:
- Atmospheric Science
- Cloud Physics
- Climate Modeling
Background:
- Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) significantly influence weather and climate.
- Understanding ACI across different scales, especially the
- grey zone
- is crucial for accurate climate projections.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the scale dependency of aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) on weather.
- To examine ACI impacts across grid and subgrid scales using the WRF-ACI model configuration.
Main Methods:
- Simulations were conducted using the WRF-ACI model at 36, 12, 4, and 1 km grid spacings.
- ACI impacts were assessed by comparing simulations with current aerosol levels to those with 90% reduced aerosol concentrations.
- Regional differences in ACI impacts were analyzed for the eastern and western U.S. during summer 2006.
Main Results:
- The aerosol-cloud lifetime effect suppressed precipitation in the eastern U.S., while the western U.S. showed offsetting impacts.
- The cloud lifetime effect weakened with decreasing grid spacing, with autoconversion becoming less dominant than accretion.
- Subgrid-scale ACI dominated at 36 km, grid-scale ACI at 4 and 1 km, and both were comparable at 12 km, though grid-scale impacts appeared muted.
Conclusions:
- ACI impacts are scale-dependent, with a complex interplay between grid and subgrid-scale processes.
- Current modeling frameworks may require the inclusion of subgrid-scale cloud microphysics and ice/mixed phase cloud ACI for effective study.
- Accurate representation of ACI across scales is essential for improving weather and climate model predictions.
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