Precipitation and Coalescence Scavenging in Shallow Southern Ocean Clouds

南大洋浅层云中的降水和聚结清除

基本信息

批准号：
2124993
负责人：
Roger Marchand
金额：
$ 53.34万
依托单位：
University of Washington
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2124993&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Precipitation Coalescence Scavenging Shallow Southern

项目摘要

Clouds in the marine boundary layer (say the kilometer of the atmosphere just above the ocean surface) have a global cooling effect as they reflect sunlight back to space but are too low to effectively trap outgoing infrared radiation. The climatic effect of these clouds has become an important issue in climate change research, as warmer temperatures may alter either the reflectivity of the clouds or their typical lifetimes, the factors which determine the strength of their cooling effect. The reflectivity of marine boundary layer clouds is determined in large part by the abundance of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), the tiny aerosol particles which absorb moisture from the atmosphere to seed the growth of cloud droplets. When CCN are more abundant the available cloud water is spread over a larger number of smaller droplets, leading to a more reflective cloud than would occur with fewer CCN and hence a smaller number of larger droplets. Clouds made of smaller droplets also last longer, as the process of collision and coalescence that combines cloud droplets (perhaps a million or so) to form a raindrop takes longer when the droplets are smaller and thus more are needed to make a raindrop, meaning a drop big enough to fall from the cloud.Previous work by the PIs developed a simplified budget equation for CCN relating changes in CCN abundance to sources, including the generation of aerosols by biological processes in the surface ocean, and sinks, including precipitation. Precipitation is quite effective in removing CCN from liquid clouds as each one of the million or so droplets in a raindrop contains a CCN. The PIs used their budget analysis to show that CCN removal by precipitation, referred to as precipitation scavenging or coalescence scavenging, is the dominant mechanism for CCN removal and accounts for much of the geographic variability of CCN abundance over the oceans. They also used their budget to derive a formula for the droplet number concentration (Nd) in marine boundary layer clouds under the assumption that the CCN sources and sinks are balanced and all the CCN in a cloud have seeded droplets.Work performed here applies the budget equation and the Nd formula to the boundary layer clouds in the storm track over the Southern Ocean using observations collected during the 2018 Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol, Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES), a field campaign that used a research aircraft to sample clouds on flights over the ocean south of Tasmania (see AGS-1660609). The aircraft measured CCN concentrations in, above, and below the clouds, and used radar and lidar to observe cloud droplets and raindrops, information which can be combined with satellite data and meteorological analysis to determine CCN concentrations and measure CCN sources and sinks. Results of the budget study are compared with output from a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) model which generates detailed clouds, CCN, and precipitation simulations based on large-scale meteorological inputs and measurements of above-cloud CCN concentrations. The project also processes and analyzes data from the aircraft radar and lidar to examine the precipitation produced by the SO clouds, looking at the amount of precipitation produced, the size distribution of raindrops, and the extent to which ice phase precipitation is also produced.The work is of societal as well as scientific interest as change in the extent of cooling provided by low clouds is among the largest uncertainties in estimates of the sensitivity of global temperature to greenhouse gas increases. The SOCRATES campaign was largely motivated by concern that the SO clouds are poorly represented in climate models used to make projections of future climate change. The project also produces datasets on cloud, precipitation, and CCN properties that can be used by the worldwide community of climate researchers. In addition, the award provides support and training for a graduate student, thereby promoting the future workforce in this research area.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

海洋边界层（即海洋表面上方一公里的大气层）中的云具有全球冷却效应，因为它们将阳光反射回太空，但云层太低，无法有效捕获传出的红外辐射。这些云的气候效应已成为气候变化研究中的一个重要问题，因为气温升高可能会改变云的反射率或其典型寿命，而这些因素决定了其冷却效应的强度。海洋边界层云的反射率在很大程度上取决于云凝结核（CCN）的丰度，云凝结核是微小的气溶胶颗粒，它们吸收大气中的水分以促进云滴的生长。当 CCN 更丰富时，可用的云水会分布在大量较小的水滴上，从而导致比 CCN 较少时出现的反射性更强的云，从而产生较少数量的较大水滴。由较小的水滴组成的云也会持续更长时间，因为当水滴较小时，将云滴（可能一百万左右）结合形成雨滴的碰撞和聚结过程需要更长的时间，因此需要更多的水滴才能形成雨滴，这意味着PI 之前的工作为 CCN 开发了一个简化的预算方程，将 CCN 丰度的变化与来源（包括表层海洋生物过程产生的气溶胶）和汇（包括降水）联系起来。降水对于从液云中去除 CCN 非常有效，因为雨滴中大约数百万个液滴中的每一个都含有 CCN。 PI 使用预算分析表明，通过降水去除 CCN（称为降水清除或合并清除）是 CCN 清除的主要机制，并解释了海洋上 CCN 丰度的大部分地理变异。他们还使用预算推导了海洋边界层云中液滴数浓度 (Nd) 的公式，假设 CCN 源和汇是平衡的，并且云中的所有 CCN 都播种了液滴。此处进行的工作应用了预算使用 2018 年南大洋云、辐射、气溶胶、运输实验研究 (SOCRATES) 期间收集的观测数据，将方程和 Nd 公式应用于南大洋风暴路径中的边界层云，该研究是一项使用研究飞机进行采样的实地活动塔斯马尼亚以南海洋上空飞行的云（参见 AGS-1660609）。该飞机测量了云层中、云层上方和云层下方的CCN浓度，并使用雷达和激光雷达观测云滴和雨滴，这些信息可以与卫星数据和气象分析相结合，以确定CCN浓度并测量CCN源和汇。将预算研究的结果与大涡模拟 (LES) 模型的输出进行比较，该模型根据大规模气象输入和云上 CCN 浓度测量生成详细的云、CCN 和降水模拟。该项目还处理和分析来自飞机雷达和激光雷达的数据，以检查SO云产生的降水，查看产生的降水量、雨滴的大小分布以及冰相降水的产生程度。这项工作具有社会和科学意义，因为低云提供的冷却程度的变化是估计全球温度对温室气体增加的敏感性的最大不确定因素之一。苏格拉底运动的主要动机是担心二氧化硫云在用于预测未来气候变化的气候模型中表现不佳。该项目还生成云、降水和 CCN 属性的数据集，可供全球气候研究人员使用。此外，该奖项还为研究生提供支持和培训，从而促进该研究领域的未来劳动力。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。