Abstract
Abstract. This paper describes the impact on the sulfate aerosol radiative effects of coupling the radiative code of a global circulation model with a chemistry-aerosol module. With this coupling, temporal variations of sulfate aerosol concentrations influence the estimate of aerosol radiative impacts. Effects of this coupling have been assessed on net fluxes, radiative forcing and temperature for the direct and first indirect effects of sulfate. The direct effect respond almost linearly to rapid changes in concentrations whereas the first indirect effect shows a strong non-linearity. In particular, sulfate temporal variability causes a modification of the short wave net fluxes at the top of the atmosphere of +0.24 and +0.22 W m−2 for the present and preindustrial periods, respectively. This change is small compared to the value of the net flux at the top of the atmosphere (about 240 W m−2). The effect is more important in regions with low-level clouds and intermediate sulfate aerosol concentrations (from 0.1 to 0.8 μg (SO4) m−3 in our model). The computation of the aerosol direct radiative forcing is quite straightforward and the temporal variability has little effect on its mean value. In contrast, quantifying the first indirect radiative forcing requires tackling technical issues first. We show that the preindustrial sulfate concentrations have to be calculated with the same meteorological trajectory used for computing the present ones. If this condition is not satisfied, it introduces an error on the estimation of the first indirect radiative forcing. Solutions are proposed to assess radiative forcing properly. In the reference method, the coupling between chemistry and climate results in a global average increase of 8% in the first indirect radiative forcing. This change reaches 50% in the most sensitive regions. However, the reference method is not suited to run long climate simulations. We present other methods that are simpler to implement in a coupled chemistry/climate model and that offer the possibility to assess radiative forcing.
Highlights
Aerosols affect the Earth’s climate system in two ways: directly and indirectly
We present other methods that are simpler to implement in a coupled chemistry/climate model and that offer the possibility to assess radiative forcing
The LMDZ model has been used in two different configurations that only differ by the way aerosol concentration is considered: prescribed in one case and coupled with the Interaction with Chemistry and Aerosols (INCA) chemistry model in the other case
Summary
Aerosols affect the Earth’s climate system in two ways: directly and indirectly. Aerosols scatter sunlight and enhance the planetary shortwave (SW) albedo, through the so-called “aerosol direct effect”. ). Variations in meteorological fields induce to a large degree the temporal variability in aerosol properties, and there is strong interest to consider the full interactions between them by using coupled climate-chemistry models. This coupling is expected to introduce non-linearities. The methods presented in this paper are not valid for models using a mechanistic activation scheme They are not suited to analyse radiative forcing that directly impacts meteorological fields like the cloud lifetime effect or the semi-direct effect. We discuss their strengths and weaknesses considering their technical performance and their accuracy concerning radiative forcing estimates
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