Abstract
AbstractAerosols have significant and complex impacts on regional climate in East Asia. Cloud‐aerosol‐precipitation interactions (CAPI) remain most challenging in climate studies. The quantitative understanding of CAPI requires good knowledge of aerosols, ranging from their formation, composition, transport, and their radiative, hygroscopic, and microphysical properties. A comprehensive review is presented here centered on the CAPI based chiefly, but not limited to, publications in the special section named EAST‐AIRcpc concerning (1) observations of aerosol loading and properties, (2) relationships between aerosols and meteorological variables affecting CAPI, (3) mechanisms behind CAPI, and (4) quantification of CAPI and their impact on climate. Heavy aerosol loading in East Asia has significant radiative effects by reducing surface radiation, increasing the air temperature, and lowering the boundary layer height. A key factor is aerosol absorption, which is particularly strong in central China. This absorption can have a wide range of impacts such as creating an imbalance of aerosol radiative forcing at the top and bottom of the atmosphere, leading to inconsistent retrievals of cloud variables from space‐borne and ground‐based instruments. Aerosol radiative forcing can delay or suppress the initiation and development of convective clouds whose microphysics can be further altered by the microphysical effect of aerosols. For the same cloud thickness, the likelihood of precipitation is influenced by aerosols: suppressing light rain and enhancing heavy rain, delaying but intensifying thunderstorms, and reducing the onset of isolated showers in most parts of China. Rainfall has become more inhomogeneous and more extreme in the heavily polluted urban regions.
Highlights
This paper is structured as follows: section 2 summarizes the major methodologies employed in the papers of the current special issue, including ground‐ based, airborne, and spaceborne observations, as well as numerical models; section 3 reviews the studies pertaining to aerosol physicochemical properties; section 4 discusses the research about process‐level understanding of aerosol effects on cloud and precipitation properties; section 5 reviews the large‐scale effects of aerosols on the regional climate over East Asia; and section 6 summarizes the new findings in the current special issue and future challenges and directions
Tao et al (2017) evaluated Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Deep Blue (DB) Collection 6 aerosol retrievals in the desert regions of East Asia based on surface measurements from the China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET)
Despite the significant accomplishments of these studies, long‐term measurements of those aerosol properties at more sites are needed to get more accurate Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) predictions under different atmospheric environments. This would improve the parameterization of number of CCN (NCCN) in models, which is critical for estimating aerosol‐cloud interactions (ACI) (Sotiropoulou et al, 2007)
Summary
As the most populated and fastest developing region of the world, East Asia has drawn much attention regarding the impact of human activities on the natural environment and climate. In light of the dramatic and rapid changes in the atmospheric environment and potential impact on regional climate in East Asia, especially China, as well as their interactions, numerous major research endeavors have been made in the region. This paper is structured as follows: section 2 summarizes the major methodologies employed in the papers of the current special issue, including ground‐ based, airborne, and spaceborne observations, as well as numerical models; section 3 reviews the studies pertaining to aerosol physicochemical properties; section 4 discusses the research about process‐level understanding of aerosol effects on cloud and precipitation properties; section 5 reviews the large‐scale effects of aerosols on the regional climate over East Asia; and section 6 summarizes the new findings in the current special issue and future challenges and directions. Ample measurements made in these experiments have been employed to conduct a wide range of studies toward achieving the above objectives whose findings are reviewed
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