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Associations between pollution and the effects of clouds on the Arctic LW and SW surface radiation balance. Tim Garrett University of Utah Collaborations with Chuanfeng Zhao, Kyle Tietze and Melissa Maestas at UU Support from NSF and Clean Air Task Force. 600 m.
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Associations between pollution and theeffects of clouds on the Arctic LW and SW surface radiation balance Tim Garrett University of Utah Collaborations with Chuanfeng Zhao, Kyle Tietze and Melissa Maestas at UU Support from NSF and Clean Air Task Force
600 m Arctic Stratus at full resolution (30 m x 300 m)
Seasonality of Arctic Haze Winter/Spring Increase in Aerosol Nitrate and Sulfate Sources: Diesel and gasoline engines Coal fired power plants
Cloud Radiative Forcing Most Polluted
Winter – Enhanced Cloud Longwave Emissivity (+ΔT) Thin, polluted cloud. Better insulator. Heat is trapped and re-emitted. [Garrett and Zhao, Nature, 2006] Thin, clean cloud Poor insulator Heat escapes F(LW) = T4
Cloud emissivity depends foremost on cloud thickness Garrett et al. (2002) JAS
DJF MAM Blackbody <3.5 km
JJA SON Blackbody <3.5 km
Cloud emissivity also depends on re and potentially also Arctic pollution Garrett et al. (2002) JAS
Measurements ARM remote sensing NOAA aerosol Barrow Site ERS-Gome satellite Ozone profile Temperature and water vapor profiles
Looking up with FTIR at Barrow CO2 dirty window (looking up at outer space) Retrieval bands Strat. O3
Upper haze quartile Clean Polluted Lower haze quartile All Low Cloud
Forcing normalized by monthly low cloud cover 10 W/m2 ~ 2.5 K Warming Cooling
Climate Radiation Clouds Dynamics Microphysics
Nominally clean Nominally polluted
FLW FLW FLW
Low clouds (z < 3km) High clouds (z > 7 km) Thick clouds (dz > 7 km) Kay et al. (in prep) A-train Arctic Clouds:Winter (DJF 06)
2006 2007 Kay et al. (in prep) Arctic low cloud anomaly in 2007
Climate What is the direction of this arrow? Radiation Clouds Dynamics Microphysics
Summary • Seasonal pollution is associated with changes in low-level Arctic cloud properties • Higher longwave cloud emissivity • Net surface warming in winter and spring (about 5 W/m2) • Compensating surface cooling in summer if surface is dark
Summary • Increases in downwelling longwave fluxes occur in late winter and early spring, at the beginning of the melting ‘push’
Summary • The CRF increases are larger than would be expected from effective radius decreases alone • There may be interesting interactions between pollution and cloud dynamics, associated with enhanced cloud top radiative cooling • Cloud cover • Cloud circulations • Cloud top entrainment • Cloud forcing?