Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET
The sensitivity of climate models to the characterization of African aerosol particles is poorly understood. Africa is a major source of dust and biomass burning aerosols and this represents an important research gap in understanding the impact of aerosols on radiative forcing of the climate system....
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:57928cc1161e40b09babc1c1a6e4d9eb 2023-05-15T13:07:06+02:00 Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET H. M. Horowitz R. M. Garland M. Thatcher W. A. Landman Z. Dedekind J. van der Merwe F. A. Engelbrecht 2017-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13999-2017 https://doaj.org/article/57928cc1161e40b09babc1c1a6e4d9eb EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/13999/2017/acp-17-13999-2017.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-17-13999-2017 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://doaj.org/article/57928cc1161e40b09babc1c1a6e4d9eb Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 17, Pp 13999-14023 (2017) Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 article 2017 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13999-2017 2022-12-31T16:12:03Z The sensitivity of climate models to the characterization of African aerosol particles is poorly understood. Africa is a major source of dust and biomass burning aerosols and this represents an important research gap in understanding the impact of aerosols on radiative forcing of the climate system. Here we evaluate the current representation of aerosol particles in the Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) with ground-based remote retrievals across Africa, and additionally provide an analysis of observed aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (AOD 550 nm ) and Ångström exponent data from 34 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites. Analysis of the 34 long-term AERONET sites confirms the importance of dust and biomass burning emissions to the seasonal cycle and magnitude of AOD 550 nm across the continent and the transport of these emissions to regions outside of the continent. In general, CCAM captures the seasonality of the AERONET data across the continent. The magnitude of modeled and observed multiyear monthly average AOD 550 nm overlap within ±1 standard deviation of each other for at least 7 months at all sites except the Réunion St Denis Island site (Réunion St. Denis). The timing of modeled peak AOD 550 nm in southern Africa occurs 1 month prior to the observed peak, which does not align with the timing of maximum fire counts in the region. For the western and northern African sites, it is evident that CCAM currently overestimates dust in some regions while others (e.g., the Arabian Peninsula) are better characterized. This may be due to overestimated dust lifetime, or that the characterization of the soil for these areas needs to be updated with local information. The CCAM simulated AOD 550 nm for the global domain is within the spread of previously published results from CMIP5 and AeroCom experiments for black carbon, organic carbon, and sulfate aerosols. The model's performance provides confidence for using the model to estimate large-scale regional impacts of African aerosols on radiative forcing, but ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Aerosol Robotic Network Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 17 22 13999 14023 |
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Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
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Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 H. M. Horowitz R. M. Garland M. Thatcher W. A. Landman Z. Dedekind J. van der Merwe F. A. Engelbrecht Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET |
topic_facet |
Physics QC1-999 Chemistry QD1-999 |
description |
The sensitivity of climate models to the characterization of African aerosol particles is poorly understood. Africa is a major source of dust and biomass burning aerosols and this represents an important research gap in understanding the impact of aerosols on radiative forcing of the climate system. Here we evaluate the current representation of aerosol particles in the Conformal Cubic Atmospheric Model (CCAM) with ground-based remote retrievals across Africa, and additionally provide an analysis of observed aerosol optical depth at 550 nm (AOD 550 nm ) and Ångström exponent data from 34 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites. Analysis of the 34 long-term AERONET sites confirms the importance of dust and biomass burning emissions to the seasonal cycle and magnitude of AOD 550 nm across the continent and the transport of these emissions to regions outside of the continent. In general, CCAM captures the seasonality of the AERONET data across the continent. The magnitude of modeled and observed multiyear monthly average AOD 550 nm overlap within ±1 standard deviation of each other for at least 7 months at all sites except the Réunion St Denis Island site (Réunion St. Denis). The timing of modeled peak AOD 550 nm in southern Africa occurs 1 month prior to the observed peak, which does not align with the timing of maximum fire counts in the region. For the western and northern African sites, it is evident that CCAM currently overestimates dust in some regions while others (e.g., the Arabian Peninsula) are better characterized. This may be due to overestimated dust lifetime, or that the characterization of the soil for these areas needs to be updated with local information. The CCAM simulated AOD 550 nm for the global domain is within the spread of previously published results from CMIP5 and AeroCom experiments for black carbon, organic carbon, and sulfate aerosols. The model's performance provides confidence for using the model to estimate large-scale regional impacts of African aerosols on radiative forcing, but ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
H. M. Horowitz R. M. Garland M. Thatcher W. A. Landman Z. Dedekind J. van der Merwe F. A. Engelbrecht |
author_facet |
H. M. Horowitz R. M. Garland M. Thatcher W. A. Landman Z. Dedekind J. van der Merwe F. A. Engelbrecht |
author_sort |
H. M. Horowitz |
title |
Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET |
title_short |
Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET |
title_full |
Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET |
title_fullStr |
Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over Africa using AERONET |
title_sort |
evaluation of climate model aerosol seasonal and spatial variability over africa using aeronet |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13999-2017 https://doaj.org/article/57928cc1161e40b09babc1c1a6e4d9eb |
genre |
Aerosol Robotic Network |
genre_facet |
Aerosol Robotic Network |
op_source |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol 17, Pp 13999-14023 (2017) |
op_relation |
https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/13999/2017/acp-17-13999-2017.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7316 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-7324 doi:10.5194/acp-17-13999-2017 1680-7316 1680-7324 https://doaj.org/article/57928cc1161e40b09babc1c1a6e4d9eb |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13999-2017 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
22 |
container_start_page |
13999 |
op_container_end_page |
14023 |
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1766035401800155136 |