Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate

Aerosols, Clouds, and Climate

Aerosol–cloud interactions are the most uncertain part of future climate forcing. We analyze observations and develop and evaluate atmospheric models to study two critical regions: the Arctic and Southeast Atlantic ocean.

The Arctic

The Arctic climate is changing more rapidly than anywhere else on Earth. Here, we quantify the source of sea salt aerosols from cracks in sea ice (leads) and its impacts by analyzing observations with novel statistical techniques and developing new modeling capabilities. We also take advantage of new measurement platforms — unmanned saildrones — that expand our ability to evaluate NOAA operational forecast models in the Arctic.

See below for some of our recent work in this area:

Impacts of Sea Ice Leads on Sea Salt Aerosols and Atmospheric Chemistry in the Arctic [DOI]

Validation of Forecasted Surface Sensible and Latent Heat Fluxes by GFS and GEFS against Saildrone Observations in the Arctic [DOI]

The Southeast Atlantic Ocean

The atmosphere over the Southeast Atlantic Ocean has the highest uncertainty in aerosol radiative forcing, and differences in how climate models simulate clouds in regions like this drives the spread in their estimates of how much the Earth will warm under increasing CO₂. While the low-lying cloud decks here are semi-permanent, previous work has largely focused on the impacts of the southern African biomass burning season (limited to August–October). Our work aims to assess seasonally-varying drivers of uncertainty in aerosol composition at cloud-relevant altitudes throughout the year, to inform the model developments needed to improve future climate projections.

See below for some of our recent work in this area:

Quantifying the impacts of marine aerosols over the southeast Atlantic Ocean using a chemical transport model: implications for aerosol–cloud interactions [DOI]

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