HR: 0800h
AN: A41A-0016    [Abstracts]
TI: Assessing Changes in Surface Fluxes over Land due to Linked Changes in Aerosol and Clouds
AU: * Berg, L K
EM: larry.berg@pnl.gov
AF: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, United States
AU: Kassianov, E
EM: Evgueni.Kassianov@pnl.gov
AF: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, United States
AU: Flynn, C
EM: connor.flynn@pnl.gov
AF: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, United States
AU: McFarlane, S
EM: sally.mcfarlane@pnl.gov
AF: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, PO Box 999, Richland, WA 99352, United States
AB: Recent large-eddy simulation studies have examined the response of warm continental cumulus clouds to aerosol loading and have demonstrated that aerosol radiative effects can significantly reduce surface fluxes, and thus decrease convection and the cloud fraction. Both aerosol and clouds affect the surface fluxes, making it difficult to predict different and possibly compensating changes in the surface energy balance. To estimate the sensitivity of the surface fluxes to changes of aerosol and cloud properties, we use collocated and coincident ground-based measurements and Terra/Aqua satellite observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility (ACRF) Southern Great Plains (SGP) site. We estimate this sensitivity in a specific 5-summer dataset of fair-weather cumulus (FWC) clouds and mostly non-absorbing aerosols that occur at the ACRF SGP site. In particular, we demonstrate that the sensitivity depends on both the time of day and the cloud size. Since the SGP-obtained statistics appear to be fairly typical of the mid-latitude regions, we expect that our findings may be valid for a range of continental FWC clouds and aerosols.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting