Aerosol-cloud interactions, the mechanisms by which aerosols impact clouds and precipitation and clouds impact aerosols as they are released upon droplet evaporation, are investigated by means of explicit high-resolution (3 km) numerical simulations with the Mesoscale Compressible Community (MC2) model. This model, which is non-hydrostatic and compressible, was extended by including separate continuity equations for dry and activated multi-modal aerosol, and for chemical species. The sources and sinks include: particle activation, solute transfer between drops, generation of extra soluble material in clouds via oxidation of dissolved SO2, and particle regeneration. The cloud processes are represented by an advanced double-moment bulk microphysical parameterization. / Three summertime cases have been evaluated: a marine stratus and a cold frontal system over the Bay of Fundy near Nova Scotia, formed on 1 Sep 1995 and extensively sampled as a part of the Radiation, Aerosol, and Cloud Experiment (RACE); and a continental stratocumulus, formed over the southern coast of Lake Erie on 11 July 2001. The marine stratus and the frontal system have been examined for the effects of aerosol on cloud properties and thoroughly evaluated against the available observations. The frontal system and the continental stratocumulus have been evaluated for the effects of cloud processing on the aerosol spectrum. / The marine stratus simulations suggest a significant impact of the aerosol on cloud properties. A simulation with mechanistic activation and a uni-modal aerosol showed the best agreement with observations in regards to cloud-base and cloud-top height, droplet concentration, and liquid water content. A simulation with a simple activation parameterization failed to simulate essential bulk cloud properties: droplet concentration was significantly underpredicted and the vertical structure of the cloud was inconsistent with the observations. A simulation with a mechanistic parameterization and a bi-modal aerosol, including a coarse mode observed in particle spectra below cloud, showed high sensitivity of droplet concentration to the inclusion of the coarse mode. There was a significant reduction in droplet number relative to the simulation without the coarse mode. A similar change occurred in the precipitating system preceding the stratus formation, resulting in an enhancement of precipitation in the weaker (upstream) part of the system while the precipitation in the more vigorous (downstream) part of the system remained almost unaffected. / Aerosol processing via collision-coalescence and aqueous chemistry in the non-drizzling stratocumulus case suggests that impact of the two mechanisms is of similar magnitude and can be as large as a 3-5 % increase in particle mean radius. A more detailed analysis reveals that the impact of chemical processing is oxidant-limited; beyond times when the oxidant (H 2O2) is depleted (∼ 40 minutes), the extent of processing is determined by supply of fresh oxidant from large-scale advection (fresh gaseous emissions are not considered). Aerosol processing via drop collision-coalescence alone suggests, as expected, sensitivity to the strength of the collection process in clouds. Larger particle growth, up to 5-10 %, is observed in the case of the frontal clouds, which exhibit stronger drop collection compared to that in the stratocumulus case. The processed aerosol exerted a measurable impact on droplet concentrations and precipitation production in the frontal clouds. For the case modeled here, contrary to expectations, the processed spectrum (via physical processing) produced higher droplet concentration than the unprocessed spectrum. The reasons explaining this phenomenon and the resulting impact on precipitation production are discussed. / The current work illustrates the complexity of the coupled system at the cloud system scales, revealed earlier at much smaller large eddy scales. If future parameterizations of the regional effect of aerosols on clouds are to be developed, careful consideration is required of the many of feedbacks in the boundary layer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.100670 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Paunova, Irena T. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.) |
| Rights | © Irena T. Paunova, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002479260, proquestno: AAINR25226, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
Page generated in 0.0022 seconds