Black carbon indirect radiative effects in a climate model

Ribu Cherian; Johannes Quaas; Marc Salzmann; Lorenzo Tomassini

doi:10.1080/16000889.2017.1369342

Black carbon indirect radiative effects in a climate model

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1

By: Ribu Cherian, Johannes Quaas, Marc Salzmann and Lorenzo Tomassini

Open Access

|Jan 2017

Abstract

The aerosol–cloud interactions due to black carbon (BC) aerosols, as well as the implied climate responses, are examined using an aerosol module in the coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model MPI-ESM. BC is simulated to enhance cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) by 10–15% in the BC emission source regions, especially in the Tropics and mid-latitudes. Higher CDNC and reduced auto-conversion from cloud water to rain water explains the increased cloud water path over the tropical regions (30∘S–30∘N) in the model. In the global mean, the cloud water– as well as precipitation changes are negligibly small. The global-mean effective radiative forcing due to aerosol–cloud interactions for BC is estimated at-0.13±0.1Wm-2, which is attributable to the increase in CDNC burden and (regionally) cloud water in the model. Global mean temperature and rainfall response were found to be-0.16±0.04Kand-0.004±0.004mmday-1, respectively, with significantly larger regional changes mainly in the downwind regions from BC sources.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/16000889.2017.1369342 | Journal eISSN: 1600-0889

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Language: English

Page range: 1369342 - 1369342

Submitted on: Mar 18, 2017

Accepted on: Aug 3, 2017

Published on: Jan 1, 2017

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

aerosol indirect forcing,

clouds and aerosols,

black carbon,

aerosols and particles

© 2017 Ribu Cherian, Johannes Quaas, Marc Salzmann, Lorenzo Tomassini, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 69 (2017): Issue 1