EGU2020-8998, updated on 09 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8998
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Distinct Impacts of Increased Aerosols on Cloud Droplet Number Concentration of Stratus/Stratocumulus and Cumulus

Hailing Jia1,2, Xiaoyan Ma1, Fangqun Yu2, Yangang Liu3, and Yan Yin1
Hailing Jia et al.
  • 1Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, School of Atmospheric Physics, China (jiahl@nuist.edu.cn)
  • 2Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, University at Albany, Albany, NY, USA
  • 3Environmental and Climate Sciences Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

In situ aircraft measurements obtained during the RACORO field campaign are analyzed to study the aerosol effects on different cloud regimes. The results show that with increasing cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), cloud droplet number concentration (Nd) significantly increases in stratocumulus (Sc) while remains almost unchanged in cumulus (Cu). By using a new approach to strictly constrain the dynamics in Cu, we found that neither simultaneously changing cloud dynamics nor dilution of cloud water induced by entrainment-mixing can explain the observed insensitivity of Nd. The different degree of reduction in cloud supersaturation caused by increasing aerosols might be responsible for the observed different aerosol indirect effect between Sc and Cu.

How to cite: Jia, H., Ma, X., Yu, F., Liu, Y., and Yin, Y.: Distinct Impacts of Increased Aerosols on Cloud Droplet Number Concentration of Stratus/Stratocumulus and Cumulus, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-8998, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-8998, 2020.