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What Controls the Vertical Distribution of Aerosol? Relationships Between Process Sensitivity in HadGEM3-UKCA and Inter-Model Variation from AeroCom Phase IIThe vertical profile of aerosol is important for its radiative effects, but weakly constrained by observations on the global scale, and highly variable among different models. To investigate the controlling factors in one particular model, we investigate the effects of individual processes in HadGEM3-UKCA and compare the resulting diversity of aerosol vertical profiles with the inter-model diversity from the AeroCom Phase II control experiment. In this way we show that (in this model at least) the vertical profile is controlled by a relatively small number of processes, although these vary among aerosol components and particle sizes. We also show that sufficiently coarse variations in these processes can produce a similar diversity to that among different models in terms of the global-mean profile and, to a lesser extent, the zonal-mean vertical position. However, there are features of certain models' profiles that cannot be reproduced, suggesting the influence of further structural differences between models. In HadGEM3-UKCA, convective transport is found to be very important in controlling the vertical profile of all aerosol components by mass. In-cloud scavenging is very important for all except mineral dust. Growth by condensation is important for sulfate and carbonaceous aerosol (along with aqueous oxidation for the former and ageing by soluble material for the latter). The vertical extent of biomass-burning emissions into the free troposphere is also important for the profile of carbonaceous aerosol. Boundary-layer mixing plays a dominant role for sea salt and mineral dust, which are emitted only from the surface. Dry deposition and below-cloud scavenging are important for the profile of mineral dust only. In this model, the microphysical processes of nucleation, condensation and coagulation dominate the vertical profile of the smallest particles by number (e.g. total CN >3 nm), while the profiles of larger particles (e.g. CN>100 nm) are controlled by the same processes as the component mass profiles, plus the size distribution of primary emissions. We also show that the processes that affect the AOD-normalised radiative forcing in the model are predominantly those that affect the vertical mass distribution, in particular convective transport, in-cloud scavenging, aqueous oxidation, ageing and the vertical extent of biomass-burning emissions.
Document ID
20160003693
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Kipling, Zak
(Oxford Univ. Oxford, United Kingdom)
Stier, Philip
(Oxford Univ. Oxford, United Kingdom)
Johnson, Colin E.
(MET Office (Meteorological Office) Exeter, United Kingdom)
Mann, Graham W.
(Leeds Univ. United Kingdom)
Bellouin, Nicolas
(Reading Univ. United Kingdom)
Bauer, Susanne E.
(Columbia Univ. New York, NY, United States)
Bergman, Tommi
(Finnish Meteorological Inst. Helsinki, Finland)
Chin, Mian
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Diehl, Thomas
(Commission of the European Communities Ispra, Italy)
Ghan, Steven J.
(Pacific Northwest National Lab. Richland, WA, United States)
Tsigaridis, Kostas
(Columbia Univ. New York, NY, United States)
Date Acquired
March 23, 2016
Publication Date
February 26, 2016
Publication Information
Publication: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Publisher: Copernicus Publications
Volume: 16
Issue: 4
e-ISSN: 1680-7324
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN30373
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX09AK32G
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNX14AB99A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
dust
scavenging
convection
models
aerosols
minerals
oxidation

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