Poster's note : relevant to MCB. Changes in cloud top height may affect thermal radiation
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL067830/full Geophysical Research Letters Observational evidence for aerosol invigoration in shallow cumulus downstream of Mount Kilauea G. G. Mace, A. C. Abernathy First published:28 March 2016 DOI:10.1002/2016GL067830 Abstract Knowledge of how marine boundary layer (MBL) shallow cumulus clouds respond to changes in aerosol is central to understanding how MBL clouds modulate the climate system. Mount Kilauea on the island of Hawaii began erupting in 2008 injecting substantial SO2 into the marine boundary layer creating a unique natural laboratory. Examining data from approximately 600 passes of the A-Train downstream of Mount Kilauea over a 3 year period and separating data into aerosol optical depth quartiles, we find an unambiguous increase in marine boundary cloud top height and an increase in surface wind speed as aerosol increases while the radar reflectivity does not change substantially. We conclude that increased aerosols may have caused invigoration of the MBL clouds. Additionally, we find that increases in sub 1 km cloud fraction combined with increasing aerosol explain the increased visible reflectance suggesting that evidence for the so-called first aerosol indirect effect should be reexamined -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
