Differing Impacts of Black Carbon and Sulfate Aerosols on Global Precipitation and the ITCZ Location via Atmosphere and Ocean Energy Perturbations

Abstract

AbstractThis study explores the effects of black carbon (BC) and sulfate (SO4) on global and tropical precipitation with a climate model. Results show that BC causes a decrease in global annual mean precipitation, consisting of a large negative tendency of a fast precipitation response scaling with instantaneous atmospheric absorption and a small positive tendency of a slow precipitation response scaling with the BC-caused global warming. SO4 also causes a decrease in global annual mean precipitation, which is dominated by a slow precipitation response corresponding to the surface cooling caused by SO4. BC causes a northward shift of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), mainly through a fast precipitation response, whereas SO4 causes a southward shift of the ITCZ through a slow precipitation response. The displacements of the ITCZ caused by BC and SO4 are found to linearly correlate with the corresponding changes in cross-equatorial heat transport in the atmosphere, with a regression coefficient of about −3° PW−1, implying that the ITCZ shifts occur as manifestations of the atmospheric cross-equatorial heat transport changes in response to the BC and SO4 forcings. The atmospheric cross-equatorial heat transport anomaly caused by BC is basically driven by the BC-induced interhemispheric contrast in instantaneous atmospheric absorption, whereas the atmospheric cross-equatorial heat transport anomaly caused by SO4 is mostly attributable to the response of evaporation. It is found that a slab-ocean model exaggerates the cross-equatorial heat transport response in the atmosphere and the ITCZ shift both for BC and SO4, as compared with an ocean-coupled model. This underscores the importance of using an ocean-coupled model in modeling studies of the tropical climate response to aerosols.