Abstract
Convective clouds in tropical areas can be sensitive to the atmospheric sulfate loading, particularly during enhanced sulfate episodes. This assertion is supported by simulations with a high resolution limited area non-hydrostatic model (LAN) employing a detailed sulfate-cloud microphysics scheme, applied to estimate the effects of sulfate on convective clouds in a case study from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). Results show that a change in sulfate loading for scenarios using the minimum to the maximum observed values produces a change in the average net flux of shortwave radiation above clouds. This time-average change was estimated between -1.1 and -0.3 Wm-2 over the integration domain.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1423-1426 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Geophysical Research Letters |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 1 1998 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Geophysics
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences