HR: 11:20h
AN: GC22A-05 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Aerosol-Water Cycle Interaction: A New Challenge in Monsoon Climate Research
AU: * Lau, W K
EM: william.k.lau@nasa.gov
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheres NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, 8808 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: Long recognized as a major environmental hazard, aerosol is now known to have strong impacts on both regional and global water cycles and climate change. In the Asian monsoon regions, the response of the regional water cycle and climate to aerosol forcing is very complex, not only because of presence of diverse mix of aerosol species with vastly different radiative properties, but also because the monsoon is strongly influenced by ocean and land surface processes, land use, land change, as well as regional and global greenhouse warming effects. Thus, sorting out the impacts of aerosol forcing, and interaction with the monsoon water cycle is a very challenging problem. Up to now, besides the general notion that aerosols may significantly impact monsoon through altering large scale radiative heating gradients, there has been very little information regarding the specific signatures, and mechanisms of aerosol-monsoon water cycle interaction. In this talk, based on preliminary results from observations and climate model experiments, I will offer some insights into how aerosols may impact the Asian monsoon water cycle, in particular the effects of absorbing aerosols (dust and black carbon), and the role of the Tibetan Plateau. The influence of aerosol forcing relative to those due to sea surface temperature and land surface processes, and impact on potential predictability of the monsoon climate system will also be discussed.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 1620 Climate dynamics (0429, 3309)
DE: 1630 Impacts of global change (1225)
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
SC: Global Climate Change [GC]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005