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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols and particles
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Cloud physics and chemistry
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Cloud/radiation interaction
  • Global Change: Remote sensing
  • Atmospheric Processes: Clouds and aerosols

Abstract

Influence of mixing on evaluation of the aerosol first indirect effect

Hongfei Shao

Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

Guosheng Liu

Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

The aerosol first indirect effect is known to cool the Earth radiatively. However, its magnitude is very uncertain. One of the difficulties in deriving this effect is caused by the coherent variation between aerosol abundance and meteorological conditions. In this study, we demonstrate that evaluation of the aerosol first indirect effect based on comparisons of clouds with different aerosol concentrations suffers an influence of the different degrees of mixing between clean and polluted clouds. By introducing a new method capable to remove this influence, we show that the strength of the aerosol first indirect effect is about half of that estimated by many previous investigators.

Received 10 February 2006; accepted 26 May 2006; published 21 July 2006.

Citation: Shao, H., and G. Liu (2006), Influence of mixing on evaluation of the aerosol first indirect effect, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L14809, doi:10.1029/2006GL026021.

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