Sensitivity of African Easterly Waves to Dust Direct Radiative Forcing

Abstract

African Easterly Waves (AEWs) are the most important precipitation-producing dynamic systems in tropical Africa and Atlantic, where dust in the atmosphere is abundant. But the past studies lack consensus on the sign and magnitude of the dust radiative forcing impact on AEWs primarily because of the disagreement in calculating dust solar radiation absorption. The incapability of coarse-resolution models to represent various dust-AEW interactions is another source of uncertainty. The present study uses a high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model, HiRAM, to investigate the sensitivity of AEWs to the dust direct radiative forcing when dust shortwave absorption varies within the observed limits. Global simulations are conducted with the 25 km grid spacing to adequately simulate AEWs and associated circulation features. Four 10-year experiments are conducted: One control experiment without dust and three others with dust assuming dust is an inefficient, standard, and very efficient shortwave absorber. The results show that AEWs are highly sensitive to dust shortwave absorption. As dust shortwave absorption increases, AEW activity intensifies and broadens the wave track shifting it southward. The 6-9 day waves are more sensitive to dust shortwave absorption than the 3-5 day waves, where the response in the former has a stark land-sea contrast. The sensitivity of AEW to dust solar radiation absorption arises from a combination of energy conversion mechanisms. Although baroclinic energy conversion dominates the energy cycle, the responses to dust shortwave heating in barotropic and generation terms are comparable to that in baroclinic conversion.