Investigating aerosol effects on stratocumulus clouds through large-eddy simulation

• Main Author: Bulatovic, Ines
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Meteorologiska institutionen (MISU) 2022
• Subjects: aerosol particles; stratocumulus; mixed-phase clouds; cloud microphysics; cloud radiative effects; Arctic; Arctic amplification; LES; aerosolpartiklar; stratusmoln; underkylda vattendroppar och iskristaller; molnmikrofysik; molnstrålningseffekter; Arktis; ”large-eddy simulation”; Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences; Meteorologi och atmosfärforskning; Arctic Ocean; Arktis*
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-209370

Clouds have a large impact on Earth’s radiative budget by reflecting, absorbing and re-emitting radiation. They thus play a critical role in the climate system. Nevertheless, cloud radiative effects in a changing climate are highly uncertain. Atmospheric aerosol particles are another factor affecting Earth’s climate but the magnitude of their influence is also associated with high uncertainty. Therefore, an accurate representation of aerosol-cloud interactions in models is critical for having confidence in future climate projections. This thesis investigates aerosol impacts on cloud microphysical and radiative properties through numerical modelling, more specifically large-eddy simulation (LES). Moreover, the thesis investigates how the simulated cloud response to changes in the aerosol population depends on the model description of different processes. Mixed-phase stratocumulus (MPS) clouds are especially problematic to simulate for models on all scales. These clouds consist of a mixture of supercooled water and ice in the same volume and are therefore potentially thermodynamically unstable. MPS clouds over the central (north of 80° N) Arctic Ocean are particularly sensitive to aerosol changes due to the relatively clean atmospheric conditions in this region. At the same time, the clouds also have an important impact on the Arctic surface radiative budget. Therefore, this thesis mostly focuses on Arctic MPS clouds. Simulations of a typical subtropical marine stratocumulus cloud showed that the aerosol-cloud forcing depends on the model treatment for calculating the cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC). The simulated change in the top of the atmosphere shortwave radiation due to increased aerosol number concentrations was almost three times as large when the CDNC was prescribed compared to when the CDNC was prognostic. Simulations of a central Arctic summertime low-level MPS cloud confirmed that the chemical composition and the size of aerosol particles both can play an important role in determining the ...