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Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations
Aerosol-cloud interactions remain a major uncertainty in climate research. Studies have indicated that model estimates of cloud susceptibility to aerosols frequently exceed satellite estimates, motivating model reformulations to increase agreement. Here we show that conventional ways of using satell...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6035237/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29980669 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05028-4 |
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author | Ma, Po-Lun Rasch, Philip J. Chepfer, Hélène Winker, David M. Ghan, Steven J. |
author_facet | Ma, Po-Lun Rasch, Philip J. Chepfer, Hélène Winker, David M. Ghan, Steven J. |
author_sort | Ma, Po-Lun |
collection | PubMed |
description | Aerosol-cloud interactions remain a major uncertainty in climate research. Studies have indicated that model estimates of cloud susceptibility to aerosols frequently exceed satellite estimates, motivating model reformulations to increase agreement. Here we show that conventional ways of using satellite information to estimate susceptibility can serve as only a weak constraint on models because the estimation is sensitive to errors in the retrieval procedures. Using instrument simulators to investigate differences between model and satellite estimates of susceptibilities, we find that low aerosol loading conditions are not well characterized by satellites, but model clouds are sensitive to aerosol perturbations in these conditions. We quantify the observational requirements needed to constrain models, and find that the nighttime lidar measurements of aerosols provide a better characterization of tenuous aerosols. We conclude that observational uncertainties and limitations need to be accounted for when assessing the role of aerosols in the climate system. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6035237 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-60352372018-07-09 Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations Ma, Po-Lun Rasch, Philip J. Chepfer, Hélène Winker, David M. Ghan, Steven J. Nat Commun Article Aerosol-cloud interactions remain a major uncertainty in climate research. Studies have indicated that model estimates of cloud susceptibility to aerosols frequently exceed satellite estimates, motivating model reformulations to increase agreement. Here we show that conventional ways of using satellite information to estimate susceptibility can serve as only a weak constraint on models because the estimation is sensitive to errors in the retrieval procedures. Using instrument simulators to investigate differences between model and satellite estimates of susceptibilities, we find that low aerosol loading conditions are not well characterized by satellites, but model clouds are sensitive to aerosol perturbations in these conditions. We quantify the observational requirements needed to constrain models, and find that the nighttime lidar measurements of aerosols provide a better characterization of tenuous aerosols. We conclude that observational uncertainties and limitations need to be accounted for when assessing the role of aerosols in the climate system. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-07-06 /pmc/articles/PMC6035237/ /pubmed/29980669 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05028-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Ma, Po-Lun Rasch, Philip J. Chepfer, Hélène Winker, David M. Ghan, Steven J. Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
title | Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
title_full | Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
title_fullStr | Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
title_full_unstemmed | Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
title_short | Observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
title_sort | observational constraint on cloud susceptibility weakened by aerosol retrieval limitations |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6035237/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29980669 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05028-4 |
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