Radiative forcing and temperature response of dust aerosols over East Asia in the latest decade

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Su Xing-Tao ◽  
Wang Han-Jie ◽  
Zhang Zhi-Biao
2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 4625-4667 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. F. Zhang ◽  
A. S. Zakey ◽  
X. J. Gao ◽  
F. Giorgi

Abstract. The ICTP regional climate model (RegCM3) coupled with a desert dust model is used to simulate the radiative forcing and related climate effects of dust aerosols over East Asia. Two sets of experiments encompassing the main dust producing months, February to May, for 10 years (1997–2006) are conducted and inter-compared, one without (Exp. 1) and one with (Exp. 2) the radiative effects of dust aerosols. The simulation results are evaluated against ground station and satellite data. The model captures the basic observed climatology over the area of interest. The spatial and temporal variations of near surface concentration, mass load, and emission of dust aerosols from the main source regions are reproduced by model, with the main model deficiency being an overestimate of dust amount over the source regions and underestimate downwind of these source areas. Both the top-of-the-atmosphere (TOA) and surface radiative fluxes are decreased by dust and this causes a surface cooling locally up to −1°C. The inclusion of dust radiative forcing leads to a reduction of dust emission in the East Asia source regions, which is mainly caused by an increase in local stability and a corresponding decrease in dust lifting. Our results indicate that dust effects should be included in the assessment of climate change over East Asia.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lewinschal ◽  
Annica M. L. Ekman ◽  
Hans-Christen Hansson ◽  
Maria Sand ◽  
Terje K. Berntsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Short-lived anthropogenic climate forcers, such as sulphate aerosols, affect both climate and air quality. Despite being short-lived, these forcers do not affect temperatures only locally; regions far away from the emission sources are also affected. Climate metrics are often used e.g. in a policy context to compare the climate impact of different anthropogenic forcing agents. These metrics typically relate a forcing change in a certain region with a temperature change in another region and thus often require a separate model to convert emission changes to radiative forcing changes. In this study, we used a coupled Earth System Model (NorESM) to calculate emission-to-temperature-response metrics for sulphur dioxide (SO2) emission changes in four different policy-relevant regions: Europe, North America, East Asia and South Asia. We first increased the SO2 emissions in each individual region by an amount giving approximately the same global average radiative forcing change (−0.45 W m−2). The global mean temperature change per unit sulphur emission compared to the control experiment was independent of emission region and equal to ∼ 0.006 K/TgSyr−1. On a regional scale, the Arctic showed the largest temperature response in all experiments. The second largest temperature change occurred in the region of the imposed emission increase, except when South Asian emissions were changed; in this experiment, the temperature response was approximately the same in South Asia and East Asia. We also examined the non-linearity of the temperature response by removing all anthropogenic SO2 emissions over Europe in one experiment. In this case, the temperature response (both global and regional) was twice of that in the corresponding experiment with a European emission increase. This nonlinearity in the temperature response is one of many uncertainties associated with the use of simplified climate metrics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 2385-2403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lewinschal ◽  
Annica M. L. Ekman ◽  
Hans-Christen Hansson ◽  
Maria Sand ◽  
Terje K. Berntsen ◽  
...  

Abstract. Short-lived anthropogenic climate forcers (SLCFs), such as sulfate aerosols, affect both climate and air quality. Despite being short-lived, these forcers do not affect temperatures only locally; regions far away from the emission sources are also affected. Climate metrics are often used in a policy context to compare the climate impact of different anthropogenic forcing agents. These metrics typically relate a forcing change in a certain region with a temperature change in another region and thus often require a separate model to convert emission changes to radiative forcing (RF) changes. In this study, we used a coupled Earth system model, NorESM (Norwegian Earth System Model), to calculate emission-to-temperature-response metrics for sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission changes in four different policy-relevant regions: Europe (EU), North America (NA), East Asia (EA) and South Asia (SA). We first increased the SO2 emissions in each individual region by an amount giving approximately the same global average radiative forcing change (−0.45 Wm−2). The global mean temperature change per unit sulfur emission compared to the control experiment was independent of emission region and equal to ∼0.006 K(TgSyr−1)−1. On a regional scale, the Arctic showed the largest temperature response in all experiments. The second largest temperature change occurred in the region of the imposed emission increase, except when South Asian emissions were changed; in this experiment, the temperature response was approximately the same in South Asia and East Asia. We also examined the non-linearity of the temperature response by removing all anthropogenic SO2 emissions over Europe in one experiment. In this case, the temperature response (both global and regional) was twice that in the corresponding experiment with a European emission increase. This non-linearity in the temperature response is one of many uncertainties associated with the use of simplified climate metrics.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (21) ◽  
pp. 13579-13599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Weum Stjern ◽  
Bjørn Hallvard Samset ◽  
Gunnar Myhre ◽  
Huisheng Bian ◽  
Mian Chin ◽  
...  

Abstract. In the Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution Phase 2 (HTAP2) exercise, a range of global atmospheric general circulation and chemical transport models performed coordinated perturbation experiments with 20 % reductions in emissions of anthropogenic aerosols, or aerosol precursors, in a number of source regions. Here, we compare the resulting changes in the atmospheric load and vertically resolved profiles of black carbon (BC), organic aerosols (OA) and sulfate (SO4) from 10 models that include treatment of aerosols. We use a set of temporally, horizontally and vertically resolved profiles of aerosol forcing efficiency (AFE) to estimate the impact of emission changes in six major source regions on global radiative forcing (RF) pertaining to the direct aerosol effect, finding values between. 51.9 and 210.8 mW m−2 Tg−1 for BC, between −2.4 and −17.9 mW m−2 Tg−1 for OA and between −3.6 and −10.3 W m−2 Tg−1 for SO4. In most cases, the local influence dominates, but results show that mitigations in south and east Asia have substantial impacts on the radiative budget in all investigated receptor regions, especially for BC. In Russia and the Middle East, more than 80 % of the forcing for BC and OA is due to extra-regional emission reductions. Similarly, for North America, BC emissions control in east Asia is found to be more important than domestic mitigations, which is consistent with previous findings. Comparing fully resolved RF calculations to RF estimates based on vertically averaged AFE profiles allows us to quantify the importance of vertical resolution to RF estimates. We find that locally in the source regions, a 20 % emission reduction strengthens the radiative forcing associated with SO4 by 25 % when including the vertical dimension, as the AFE for SO4 is strongest near the surface. Conversely, the local RF from BC weakens by 37 % since BC AFE is low close to the ground. The fraction of BC direct effect forcing attributable to intercontinental transport, on the other hand, is enhanced by one-third when accounting for the vertical aspect, because long-range transport primarily leads to aerosol changes at high altitudes, where the BC AFE is strong. While the surface temperature response may vary with the altitude of aerosol change, the analysis in the present study is not extended to estimates of temperature or precipitation changes.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (17) ◽  
pp. 10795-10809 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borgar Aamaas ◽  
Terje K. Berntsen ◽  
Jan S. Fuglestvedt ◽  
Keith P. Shine ◽  
William J. Collins

Abstract. We calculate the absolute regional temperature change potential (ARTP) of various short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) based on detailed radiative forcing (RF) calculations from four different models. The temperature response has been estimated for four latitude bands (90–28° S, 28° S–28° N, 28–60° N, and 60–90° N). The regional pattern in climate response not only depends on the relationship between RF and surface temperature, but also on where and when emissions occurred and atmospheric transport, chemistry, interaction with clouds, and deposition. We present four emissions cases covering Europe, East Asia, the global shipping sector, and the entire globe. Our study is the first to estimate ARTP values for emissions during Northern Hemisphere summer (May–October) and winter season (November–April). The species studied are aerosols and aerosol precursors (black carbon, organic carbon, SO2, NH3), ozone precursors (NOx, CO, volatile organic compound), and methane (CH4). For the response to BC in the Arctic, we take into account the vertical structure of the RF in the atmosphere, and an enhanced climate efficacy for BC deposition on snow. Of all SLCFs, BC is the most sensitive to where and when the emissions occur, as well as giving the largest difference in response between the latitude bands. The temperature response in the Arctic per unit BC emission is almost four times larger and more than two times larger than the global average for Northern Hemisphere winter emissions for Europe and East Asia, respectively. The latitudinal breakdown likely gives a better estimate of the global temperature response as it accounts for varying efficacies with latitude. An annual pulse of non-methane SLCF emissions globally (representative of 2008) lead to a global cooling. In contrast, winter emissions in Europe and East Asia give a net warming in the Arctic due to significant warming from BC deposition on snow.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1095-1110 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. F. Zhang ◽  
A. S. Zakey ◽  
X. J. Gao ◽  
F. Giorgi ◽  
F. Solmon

Abstract. The ICTP regional climate model (RegCM3) coupled with a desert dust aerosol model is used to simulate the net radiative forcing (short-wave and long-wave) and related climate effects of dust aerosols over East Asia. Two sets of experiments are completed and intercompared, one without (Exp. 1) and one with (Exp. 2) the radiative effects of dust aerosols. The experiments encompass the main dust producing months, February through May, for 10 years (1997–2006), and the simulation results are evaluated against ground station and satellite data. The model captures the basic observed climatology over the area of interest. The spatial and temporal variations of near surface concentration, mass load, optical depth and emission of dust aerosols from the main source regions are reproduced by model. The main model deficiency is an overestimate of dust amounts over the source regions and an underestimate downwind of these source areas, which indicates an underestimate of dust dispersal. Over the desert source regions, the net TOA radiative forcing is positive, while it is small over the other regions as a result of high surface albedo values which reduce the short-wave radiative forcing. The net surface radiative fluxes are decreased by dust and this causes a surface cooling locally up to −1°C. The inclusion of net (short-wave and long-wave) dust radiative forcing leads to a reduction of dust emission in the East Asia source regions, which is mainly caused by an increase in local stability and a corresponding decrease in dust lifting. Our results indicate that dust effects should be included in the assessment of climate change over East Asia.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Borgar Aamaas ◽  
Terje K. Berntsen ◽  
Jan S. Fuglestvedt ◽  
Keith P. Shine ◽  
William J. Collins

Abstract. We calculate the absolute regional temperature change potential (ARTP) of various short lived climate forcers (SLCFs) based on detailed radiative forcing (RF) calculations from four different models. The temperature response has been estimated for four latitude bands (90–28° S, 28° S–28° N, 28–60° N, and 60–90° N). The regional pattern in climate response not only depends on the relationship between RF and surface temperature, but also on where and when emissions occurred and atmospheric transport, chemistry, interaction with clouds, and deposition. We present four emissions cases covering Europe, East Asia, the global shipping sector, and the globe. Our study is the first to estimate ARTP values for emissions during Northern Hemisphere summer (May–October) and winter season (November–April). The species studied are aerosols and aerosol precursors (black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), SO2, NH3), ozone precursors (NOx, CO, volatile organic compound (VOC)), and methane (CH4). For the response to BC in the Arctic, we take into account the vertical structure of the RF in the atmosphere, and an enhanced climate efficacy for BC deposition on snow. Of all SLCFs, BC is the most sensitive to where and when the emissions occur, as well as giving the largest difference in response between the latitude bands. The temperature response in the Arctic is almost 4 times larger and more than 2 times larger than the global average for Northern Hemisphere winter emissions for Europe and East Asia, respectively. The latitudinal breakdown gives likely a better estimate of the global temperature response as it accounts for varying efficacies with latitude. An annual pulse of non-methane SLCFs emissions globally (representative of 2008) leads to a global cooling. Whereas, winter emissions in Europe and East Asia give a net warming in the Arctic due to significant warming from BC deposition on snow.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kay ◽  
Jason Chalmers

<p>While the long-standing quest to constrain equilibrium climate sensitivity has resulted in intense scrutiny of the processes controlling idealized greenhouse warming, the processes controlling idealized greenhouse cooling have received less attention. Here, differences in the climate response to increased and decreased carbon dioxide concentrations are assessed in state-of-the-art fully coupled climate model experiments. One hundred and fifty years after an imposed instantaneous forcing change, surface global warming from a carbon dioxide doubling (abrupt-2xCO2, 2.43 K) is larger than the surface global cooling from a carbon dioxide halving (abrupt-0p5xCO2, 1.97 K). Both forcing and feedback differences explain these climate response differences. Multiple approaches show the radiative forcing for a carbon dioxide doubling is ~10% larger than for a carbon dioxide halving. In addition, radiative feedbacks are less negative in the doubling experiments than in the halving experiments. Specifically, less negative tropical shortwave cloud feedbacks and more positive subtropical cloud feedbacks lead to more greenhouse 2xCO2 warming than 0.5xCO2 greenhouse cooling. Motivated to directly isolate the influence of cloud feedbacks on these experiments, additional abrupt-2xCO2 and abrupt-0p5xCO2 experiments with disabled cloud-climate feedbacks were run. Comparison of these “cloud-locked” simulations with the original “cloud active” simulations shows cloud feedbacks help explain the nonlinear global surface temperature response to greenhouse warming and greenhouse cooling. Overall, these results demonstrate that both radiative forcing and radiative feedbacks are needed to explain differences in the surface climate response to increased and decreased carbon dioxide concentrations.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 10083-10095 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas A. Davis ◽  
Dian J. Seidel ◽  
Thomas Birner ◽  
Sean M. Davis ◽  
Simone Tilmes

Abstract. Model simulations of future climates predict a poleward expansion of subtropical arid climates at the edges of Earth's tropical belt, which would have significant environmental and societal impacts. This expansion may be related to the poleward shift of the Hadley cell edges, where subsidence stabilizes the atmosphere and suppresses precipitation. Understanding the primary drivers of tropical expansion is hampered by the myriad forcing agents in most model projections of future climate. While many previous studies have examined the response of idealized models to simplified climate forcings and the response of comprehensive climate models to more complex climate forcings, few have examined how comprehensive climate models respond to simplified climate forcings. To shed light on robust processes associated with tropical expansion, here we examine how the tropical belt width, as measured by the Hadley cell edges, responds to simplified forcings in the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). The tropical belt expands in response to a quadrupling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and contracts in response to a reduction in the solar constant, with a range of a factor of 3 in the response among nine models. Models with more surface warming and an overall stronger temperature response to quadrupled carbon dioxide exhibit greater tropical expansion, a robust result in spite of inter-model differences in the mean Hadley cell width, parameterizations, and numerical schemes. Under a scenario where the solar constant is reduced to offset an instantaneous quadrupling of carbon dioxide, the Hadley cells remain at their preindustrial width, despite the residual stratospheric cooling associated with elevated carbon dioxide levels. Quadrupled carbon dioxide produces greater tropical belt expansion in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere. This expansion is strongest in austral summer and autumn. Ozone depletion has been argued to cause this pattern of changes in observations and model experiments, but the results here indicate that seasonally and hemispherically asymmetric tropical expansion can be a basic response of the general circulation to climate forcings.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanouil Proestakis ◽  
Vassilis Amiridis ◽  
Eleni Marinou ◽  
Aristeidis K. Georgoulias ◽  
Stavros Solomos ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a 3-D climatology of the desert dust distribution over South-East Asia derived using CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) data. To distinguish desert dust from total aerosol load we apply a methodology developed in the framework of EARLINET (European Aerosol Research Lidar Network), the particle linear depolarization ratio and updated lidar ratio values suitable for Asian dust, on multiyear CALIPSO observations (01/2007–12/2015). The resulting dust product provides information on the horizontal and vertical distribution of dust aerosols over SE (South-East) Asia along with the seasonal transition of dust transport pathways. Persistent high D_AOD (Dust Aerosol Optical Depth) values, of the order of 0.6, are present over the arid and semi-arid desert regions. Dust aerosol transport (range, height and intensity) is subject to high seasonality, with highest values observed during spring for northern China (Taklimakan/Gobi deserts) and during summer over the Indian subcontinent (Thar Desert). Additionally we decompose the CALIPSO AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) into dust and non-dust aerosol components to reveal the non-dust AOD over the highly industrialized and densely populated regions of SE Asia, where the non-dust aerosols yield AOD values of the order of 0.5. Furthermore, the CALIPSO-based short-term AOD and D_AOD time series and trends between 01/2007 and 12/2015 are calculated over SE Asia and over selected sub-regions. Positive trends are observed over northwest and east China and the Indian subcontinent, whereas over southeast China are mostly negative. The calculated AOD trends agree well with the trends derived from Aqua/MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), although significant differences are observed over specific regions.


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