Effects of Aerosols on the Radiative Properties of Clouds

Abstract

The influence of anthropogenic aerosols, in the form of ship exhaust effluent, on the microphysics and radiative properties of marine stratocumulus is studied using data gathered from the U.K. Met. Office C-130 and the University of Washington C-131A aircraft during the Monterey Area Ship Track (MAST) experiment in 1994. During the period of MAST, stratocumulus clouds were studied during 11 flights and a wide range of levels of background pollution was observed. The impact of the aerosol emitted from the ships was found to be very dependent on the background cloud microphysical conditions. In clouds of continental influence, the susceptibility of the cloud to further aerosol emissions was low, with a correspondingly weak microphysics and radiation signature in the ship tracks. In clean clouds, changes in droplet concentration of a factor of 2, and reductions in droplet size of up to 50%, were measured. These changes in the microphysics had significant impacts on the cloud radiative forcing. Furthermore, as a result of the cloud droplet size being reduced, in some cases the drizzle was suppressed in the clean clouds, resulting in an increase in liquid water path in the polluted ship track environment. The impact of this combined change in liquid water path and droplet radius was to increase the cloud radiative forcing by up to a factor of 4.