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| Titel |
Analysis of Aerosol-Cloud interaction from multi-sensor satellite observation |
| VerfasserIn |
Lorenzo Costantino, François-Marie Bréon |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2010
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 12 (2010) |
| Datensatznummer |
250032570
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Aerosol interaction with clouds is the main uncertainty for the quantification of the anthropogenic
forcing on climate. The first step of the so-called “aerosol indirect effect” is the change of cloud
droplet size distribution when seeded by anthropogenic aerosols. Satellite data provide the
density and diversity of observations needed for a statistical estimate of this effect. Numerous
such studies have demonstrated the correlation between aerosol load and Cloud Droplet Radius
(CDR) and a few have quantified the impact of aerosol on the microphysics. Here, we go one step
further by using the profiles from the spaceborne CALIPSO lidar that indicates the respective
position of aerosol and cloud layers. The results show that, when aerosol and cloud layers are
clearly separated, there is no correlation between aerosol load and CDR. On the other hand, when
the lidar profile indicates mixing, there is a strong correlation.
We focus on the stratocumulus cloud fields off the coast of Namibia and Angola which are
seeded by biomass burning aerosols from Africa. The log-log slope of CDR and a proxy of the
condensation nuclei number is -0.22 in excellent agreement with theoretical estimate. When the
vertical profile information is not used, the slope is significantly smaller. |
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