Impact of Biomass Burning Aerosols on the Diurnal Cycle of Convective Clouds and Precipitation Over a Tropical Island

Abstract

AbstractA coupled weather‐aerosol model is used to study the effect of biomass burning aerosols on deep convection over the Borneo Island and surrounding oceans. Simulations are performed at the convection‐permitting scale (4 km) for 40 days during the boreal summer and include interactive fire emissions and the aerosol effect on radiative and microphysical processes. Intense burning occurs daily in the southern part of the island, and smoke propagates northward to regions of deep convection. The model captures well the observed diurnal cycle of precipitation and high cloud cover. Cloud microphysics and radiative aerosol impacts are considered separately. Modifications of the cloud microphysics by smoke aerosols reinforce deep convection near the central Borneo mountainous region. This reinforced convection is due to reduced shallow precipitation in the afternoon that leads to a warm planetary boundary layer anomaly at sunset enhancing deep convection at night. Aerosol absorptive properties strongly affect local and synoptic atmospheric responses. The radiative processes of moderately absorbing aerosols tend to reduce deep convection over most regions due to local surface cooling and atmosphere warming that increase the static stability. For more absorbing aerosols, however, the impact is reversed with increased nighttime convection over most regions. This is partly related to changes in the vertical water vapor divergence profiles that decrease the convergence toward Borneo for moderately absorbing aerosols and increase it for more absorbing ones. These changes in the synoptic circulation due to large‐scale aerosol perturbations are as important as local processes to explain the observed rainfall perturbation patterns.