Convective transport and cloud processing of aerosols and chemical species

Conference Proceedings Paper
Convective transport and cloud processing of aerosols and chemical species
Wang, C., and A.M. Ekman (2004)
Geophysical Research Abstracts, 6: 04377

Abstract/Summary:

Deep convection is an important process in determining tropospheric distributions of many chemical species including aerosols. On one hand, the strong updraft and downdraft generated by deep convection can directly transport chemical species and aerosols from the planetary boundary layer to the middle and even upper troposphere or vise versa. On the other hand, cloud and precipitation particles can efficiently scavenge fast soluble gases and aerosols from the atmosphere or modify several important chemical pathways (both in aqueous and gaseous phase) of reactive chemical species. In addition, an interesting issue starts to attract attention that is whether increasing export of air pollutants from major source regions would impact on the aerosol-cloud interaction and thus modify the cloud processing and transport of chemical species including aerosols. To address above issues, numerical experiments using a threedimensional cloud-resolving model and a three-dimensional global aerosol-climate model have been carried out with emphases on the convective transport and convective cloud processing of chemical species and aerosols. Modeled results have been compared with observations and thus used in deriving explanation of several observed interesting phenomena. We found that the physics-chemistry interactions along with transport related redistribution of chemical species and aerosols, all induced by deep convection, introduce quite different features to tropospheric chemistry comparing with the no-cloud case, particularly in the upper and lower troposphere. Even more interesting are results from numerical experiments with different concentration and chemical composition of aerosols. Additionally, climate effect associated with aerosol emissions, especially of black carbon, will be discussed.

Citation:

Wang, C., and A.M. Ekman (2004): Convective transport and cloud processing of aerosols and chemical species. Geophysical Research Abstracts, 6: 04377 (http://www.egu.eu/meetings/general-assemblies.html)
  • Conference Proceedings Paper
Convective transport and cloud processing of aerosols and chemical species

Wang, C., and A.M. Ekman

Abstract/Summary: 

Deep convection is an important process in determining tropospheric distributions of many chemical species including aerosols. On one hand, the strong updraft and downdraft generated by deep convection can directly transport chemical species and aerosols from the planetary boundary layer to the middle and even upper troposphere or vise versa. On the other hand, cloud and precipitation particles can efficiently scavenge fast soluble gases and aerosols from the atmosphere or modify several important chemical pathways (both in aqueous and gaseous phase) of reactive chemical species. In addition, an interesting issue starts to attract attention that is whether increasing export of air pollutants from major source regions would impact on the aerosol-cloud interaction and thus modify the cloud processing and transport of chemical species including aerosols. To address above issues, numerical experiments using a threedimensional cloud-resolving model and a three-dimensional global aerosol-climate model have been carried out with emphases on the convective transport and convective cloud processing of chemical species and aerosols. Modeled results have been compared with observations and thus used in deriving explanation of several observed interesting phenomena. We found that the physics-chemistry interactions along with transport related redistribution of chemical species and aerosols, all induced by deep convection, introduce quite different features to tropospheric chemistry comparing with the no-cloud case, particularly in the upper and lower troposphere. Even more interesting are results from numerical experiments with different concentration and chemical composition of aerosols. Additionally, climate effect associated with aerosol emissions, especially of black carbon, will be discussed.