Key drivers of cloud response to surface-active organics

S. J. Lowe; D. G. Partridge; J. F. Davies; K. R. Wilson; D. Topping; I. Riipinen

doi:10.1038/s41467-019-12982-0

Key drivers of cloud response to surface-active organics

S. J. Lowe
, D. G. Partridge
, J. F. Davies
, K. R. Wilson
, D. Topping
, I. Riipinen^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Physics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

33 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Aerosol-cloud interactions constitute the largest source of uncertainty in global radiative forcing estimates, hampering our understanding of climate evolution. Recent empirical evidence suggests surface tension depression by organic aerosol to significantly influence the formation of cloud droplets, and hence cloud optical properties. In climate models, however, surface tension of water is generally assumed when predicting cloud droplet concentrations. Here we show that the sensitivity of cloud microphysics, optical properties and shortwave radiative effects to the surface phase are dictated by an interplay between the aerosol particle size distribution, composition, water availability and atmospheric dynamics. We demonstrate that accounting for the surface phase becomes essential in clean environments in which ultrafine particle sources are present. Through detailed sensitivity analysis, quantitative constraints on the key drivers – aerosol particle number concentrations, organic fraction and fixed updraft velocity – are derived for instances of significant cloud microphysical susceptibilities to the surface phase.

Original language	English
Article number	5214
Number of pages	12
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	10
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12982-0
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2019
Publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

This work was part of the AtmoRemove project funded by the Knut and Alice Wal-lenberg foundation (project number 2015.0162). K.R.W.'s contribution to this work is supported by the Condensed Phase and Interfacial Molecular Science Program, in the Chemical Sciences Geosciences and Biosciences Division of the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Drs. Douglas Nilsson and Claudia Mohr are gratefully acknowledged for their help in constructing the representative cases for the MA and HYY environments. Prof. Annica Ekman is gratefully acknowledged for her help in deriving short-wave cloud radiative effect estimates. D.G.P. would like to express his gratitude to Dr. Geert-Jan Roelofs for providing him with the cloud parcel model that was developed and used for this study.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

Publication forum classification

Publication forum level 3

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemistry
General Biochemistry,Genetics and Molecular Biology
General Physics and Astronomy

Access to Document

10.1038/s41467-019-12982-0

s41467-019-12982-0Final published version, 1.18 MBLicence: CC BY

http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201912046543Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Key drivers of cloud response to surface-active organics",

abstract = "Aerosol-cloud interactions constitute the largest source of uncertainty in global radiative forcing estimates, hampering our understanding of climate evolution. Recent empirical evidence suggests surface tension depression by organic aerosol to significantly influence the formation of cloud droplets, and hence cloud optical properties. In climate models, however, surface tension of water is generally assumed when predicting cloud droplet concentrations. Here we show that the sensitivity of cloud microphysics, optical properties and shortwave radiative effects to the surface phase are dictated by an interplay between the aerosol particle size distribution, composition, water availability and atmospheric dynamics. We demonstrate that accounting for the surface phase becomes essential in clean environments in which ultrafine particle sources are present. Through detailed sensitivity analysis, quantitative constraints on the key drivers – aerosol particle number concentrations, organic fraction and fixed updraft velocity – are derived for instances of significant cloud microphysical susceptibilities to the surface phase.",

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AU - Partridge, D. G.

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N2 - Aerosol-cloud interactions constitute the largest source of uncertainty in global radiative forcing estimates, hampering our understanding of climate evolution. Recent empirical evidence suggests surface tension depression by organic aerosol to significantly influence the formation of cloud droplets, and hence cloud optical properties. In climate models, however, surface tension of water is generally assumed when predicting cloud droplet concentrations. Here we show that the sensitivity of cloud microphysics, optical properties and shortwave radiative effects to the surface phase are dictated by an interplay between the aerosol particle size distribution, composition, water availability and atmospheric dynamics. We demonstrate that accounting for the surface phase becomes essential in clean environments in which ultrafine particle sources are present. Through detailed sensitivity analysis, quantitative constraints on the key drivers – aerosol particle number concentrations, organic fraction and fixed updraft velocity – are derived for instances of significant cloud microphysical susceptibilities to the surface phase.

AB - Aerosol-cloud interactions constitute the largest source of uncertainty in global radiative forcing estimates, hampering our understanding of climate evolution. Recent empirical evidence suggests surface tension depression by organic aerosol to significantly influence the formation of cloud droplets, and hence cloud optical properties. In climate models, however, surface tension of water is generally assumed when predicting cloud droplet concentrations. Here we show that the sensitivity of cloud microphysics, optical properties and shortwave radiative effects to the surface phase are dictated by an interplay between the aerosol particle size distribution, composition, water availability and atmospheric dynamics. We demonstrate that accounting for the surface phase becomes essential in clean environments in which ultrafine particle sources are present. Through detailed sensitivity analysis, quantitative constraints on the key drivers – aerosol particle number concentrations, organic fraction and fixed updraft velocity – are derived for instances of significant cloud microphysical susceptibilities to the surface phase.

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Key drivers of cloud response to surface-active organics

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

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ASJC Scopus subject areas

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