Evaluation of the direct and indirect radiative and climate effects of aerosols over the western Arctic

Abstract

From the observations of recent years, there is still not enough evidence to verify the Arctic warming as most global circulation models (GCMs) suggested. This study is dedicated to quantifying the aerosol effect on the Arctic climate change by Northern Aerosol Regional Climate Model (NARCM). The direct and indirect radiative and climate effects of aerosols such as Arctic haze sulfate, black carbon, sea salt, organics, and dust have been evaluated from our NARCM simulations. Within the Arctic Regional Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ARCMIP) our model simulations have been directly compared with the enhanced observation data sets such as the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) in the time period from October 1997 to September 1998. Results show that the climate effects of aerosols strongly depend on the aerosol composition. The surface radiative forcing of pure sulfate aerosols which includes the direct and indirect components reaches up to −7.2 W/m2 in annual mean. The climate responses to radiative forcing of pure sulfate and five kinds of aerosols together are amazingly different. The impacts of aerosols present strong seasonal cycle. In comparison with observations we find the simulation with five kinds of aerosols can better represent the surface temperature from observation. The aerosol radiative and microphysical effects must be taken into account in order to better simulate and predict the change of energy and water cycle occurring in polar climate system.