Susceptibility of East Asian Marine Warm Clouds to Aerosols in Winter and Spring from Co-Located A-Train Satellite Observations

Abstract

We constructed the A-Train co-located aerosol and marine warm cloud data from 2006 to 2010 winter and spring over East Asia and investigated the sensitivities of single-layer warm cloud properties to aerosols under different precipitation statuses and environmental regimes. The near-surface stability (NSS), modulated by cold air on top of a warm surface, and the estimated inversion strength (EIS) controlled by the subsidence are critical environmental parameters affecting the marine warm cloud structure over East Asia and, thus, the aerosols–cloud interactions. Based on our analysis, precipitating clouds revealed higher cloud susceptibility to aerosols as compared to non-precipitating clouds. The cloud liquid water path (LWP) increased with aerosols for precipitating clouds, yet decreased with aerosols for non-precipitating clouds, consistent with previous studies. For precipitating clouds, the cloud LWP and albedo increased more under higher NSS as unstable air promotes more moisture flux from the ocean. Under stronger EIS, the cloud albedo response to aerosols was lower than that under weaker EIS, indicating that stronger subsidence weakens the cloud susceptibility due to more entrainment drying. Our study suggests that the critical environmental factors governing the aerosol–cloud interactions may vary for different oceanic regions, depending on the thermodynamic conditions.

Observing severe precipitation near complex topography during the Yilan Experiment of Severe Rainfall in 2020 (YESR2020)

“…Previous investigations of precipitation processes in marine stratocumulus have been mainly focused on the formation of drizzle and light rain associated with the changes in cloud microphysics and dynamics, predominantly for the persisting low cloud decks over the northeastern and southeastern Pacific (Wood, 2012). Over the northwestern Pacific, where the East Asian winter monsoon is active, transient marine stratocumulus clouds are formed in the regions where the near‐surface northeasterly monsoonal wind is enhanced by the synoptic systems (Koike et al ., 2012; Koike et al ., 2016; Liu et al ., 2016; Chang, Chen, and Chen, 2021; Wu and Chen, 2021), as shown in the example in Figure 1a. With the presence of the marine stratocumulus, the boundary layer is moistened through enhanced vertical mixing (Lilly, 1968).…”