Atmospheric effects of nuclear war aerosols in general circulation model simulations: influence of smoke optical properties

A global atmospheric general circulation model is modified to include radiative transfer parameterizations for the absorption and scattering of solar radiation and the absorption of thermal infrared radiation by smoke aerosols.The solar scattering modifications include a parameterization for diagnosing smoke optical properties as a function of the time- and space-dependent smoke particle radii. The aerosol IR modifications allow for both the 'grey' absorber approximation and a broadland approximation that resolves the aerosol absorption in four spectral intervals. We examine the sensitivity of some GCM-simulateod atmospheric and climatic effects to the optical properties and radiative transfer parameterizations used in studies of massive injections of smoke. Specifically, we test the model response to solar scattering versus nonscattering smoke, variations in prescribed smoke single scattering albedo and IR specific absorption, and interactive versus fixed smoke optical properties. -from Authors