Dynamical and radiative response to the massive injection of aerosol from Kuwait oil burning fires

Abstract

The effects of the injection of large amount of soot comparable to that produced in the burning of oil wells in Kuwait were studied using a 2‐D mesoscale model. During the three day numerical simulation the ground‐atmosphere system appears to be strongly perturbed. A surface cooling is produced in the first two days above and downwind of the sources. The cooling, between −10 C over the desert and −0.5 C over the sea is dependent on the surface characteristics. The temperature decrease at the ground results in a stratified troposphere which inhibits convection and perturbs the normal diurnal variability of the boundary layer while the upper levels are driven by the radiative warming of the aerosol layer. In this region after few hours the simulation produces a warming of 0.8 C reaching a maximum of 6 C is after 60 hours. During the last 2 days of simulation the long wave radiation emitted by the low altitude atmospheric layers contribute to mitigate the surface cooling. A detailed discussion of the radiative and the dynamical interactions is given and it is shown that beside the specific interest in the short term effects these results may be useful to parameterize the smoke source for a GCM simulation.