Radiative effects of desert dust on weather and regional climate (original) (raw)
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Major Factors Influencing Local Dust Radiative Forcing
In conclusion, it is shown in this paper that surface albedo variations over desert regions can have a significant influence on the solar and net radiative forcing of desert dust. It is furthermore concluded that desert dust has mostly a cooling effect over oceans, and a warming effect over highly reflecting desert regions. The widespread non-sphericity of the dust particles causes a challenge; it yields an additional contribution to the cooling effect. It is also concluded here that it might be more appropriate not to start with microphysical properties in order to quantify the dust particle radiative effects. Direct measurements of the optical dust particle properties are preferable, otherwise too much uncertainties are coming into play (shape, composition, size). Using the microphysical properties is more suited if the sensitivity of the radiative forcing is investigated.
Impact of Dust Radiative Forcing upon Climate
Mineral Dust, 2014
Dust aerosols perturb the atmospheric radiative flux at both solar and thermal wavelengths, altering the energy and water cycles. The climate adjusts by redistributing energy and moisture, so that local temperature perturbations, for example, depend upon the forcing over the entire extent of the perturbed circulation. Within regions frequently mixed by deep convection, including the deep tropics, dust particles perturb the surface air temperature primarily through radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere (TOA). Many models predict that dust reduces global precipitation. This reduction is typically attributed to the decrease of surface evaporation in response to dimming of the surface. A counterexample is presented, where greater shortwave absorption by dust increases evaporation and precipitation despite greater dimming of the surface. This is attributed to the dependence of surface evaporation upon TOA forcing through its influence upon surface temperature and humidity. Perturbations by dust to the surface wind speed and vegetation (through precipitation anomalies) feed back upon the dust aerosol concentration. The current uncertainty of radiative forcing attributed to dust and the
Geophysical Research Letters, 2008
The assessment of direct radiative forcing (DRF) of aerosol is uncertain, particularly where the natural dust particles mix with the anthropogenic components. One of the sources of such uncertainty is the assumption of morphology (size and shape) and composition of pure dust particles. Recently Mishra and Tripathi [2008] have computationally assessed the effect of particle morphology on optical properties over the Great Indian Desert. As a continuation of the previous study, in this paper, we have further examined the effects on dust radiative properties. Non-spherical pure dust particles show large variations in the optical and radiative properties from spherical pure dust particles, however, particle composition is found to have greater influence than particle shape on the radiative properties. Among the various shapes, sharp-edged particles show larger difference than smooth-shaped particles. Although the overall atmospheric absorption monotonically increases with increase in hematite content, maximum effect of particle non-sphericity at 4% hematite content implies that nonsphericity should be considered to minimize the uncertainty of regional estimates of aerosol DRF, as most of the global dusts contain that much hematite. However the difference in radiative properties for background dust and dust-storm cases due to particle morphology is low. Our results show that ignoring non-sphericity will lead to underestimation of the regional warming and dust-absorption efficiency.
Uncertainties in assessing radiative forcing by mineral dust
Tellus B, 1998
The assessment of the climatic effects of an aerosol with a large variability like mineral dust requires some approximations whose validity is investigated in this paper. Calculations of direct radiative forcing by mineral dust (short-wave, long-wave and net) are performed with a single-column radiation model for two standard cases in clear sky condition: a desert case and an oceanic case. Surface forcing result from a large diminution of the short-wave fluxes and of the increase in down-welling long-wave fluxes. Top of the atmosphere (TOA) forcing is negative when short-wave backscattering dominates, for instance above the ocean, and positive when short-wave or long-wave absorption dominates, which occurs above deserts. We study here the sensitivity of these mineral forcings to different treatments of the aerosol complex refractive index and size distribution. We also describe the importance of the dust vertical profile, ground temperature, emissivity and albedo. Among these parameters, the aerosol complex refractive index has been identified as a critical parameter given the paucity and the incertitude associated with it. Furthermore, the imaginary part of the refractive index is inadequate if spectrally averaged. Its natural variability (linked to mineralogical characteristics) lead to variations of up to ±40% in aerosol forcing calculations. A proper representation of the size distribution when modelling mineral aerosols is required since dust optical properties are very sensitive to the presence of small particles. In addition we demonstrate that LW forcing imply a non-negligible sensitivity to the vertical profiles of temperature and dust, the latter being an important constraint for dust effect calculations.
The size distribution of desert dust aerosols and its impact on the Earth system
Aeolian Research, 2013
The global cycle of desert dust aerosols responds strongly to climate and human perturbations, and, in turn, impacts climate and biogeochemistry. Here we focus on desert dust size distributions, how these are characterized, emitted from the surface, evolve in the atmosphere, and impact climate and biogeochemistry. Observations, theory and global model results are synthesized to highlight the evolution and impact of dust sizes. Individual particles sizes are, to a large extent, set by the soil properties and the mobilization process. The lifetime of different particle sizes controls the evolution of the size distribution as the particles move downwind, as larger particles fall out more quickly. The dust size distribution strongly controls the radiative impact of the aerosols, as well as their interactions with clouds. The size of particles controls how far downwind they travel, and thus their ability to impact biogeochemistry downwind of the source region.
Study of Radiative Forcing of Dust Aerosols and its impact on Climate Characteristics
2012
Study of impact of dust aerosols on radiative forcing in region of Arabian Peninsula Fawwad H. Qureshi The purpose of following project is to study the effect of dust aerosols on the radiative forcing which is directly related to the surface temperature. A single column radiative convective model is used for simulation purpose. A series of simulations have been performed by varying the amount of dust aerosols present in the atmosphere to study the trends in ground temperature, heating rate and radiative forcing for both its longwave and shortwave components. A case study for dust storm is also performed as dust storms are common in Arabian Peninsula. A sensitivity analyses is also performed to study the relationship of surface temperature minimum and maximum against aerosol concentration, single scattering albedo and asymmetry factor. These analyses are performed to get more insight into the role of dust aerosols on radiative forcing
2006
The implications of climatic effects due to aerosols with a large variability like mineral dust serve as indicators of dust events and are examined. Airborne mineral dust can influence the climate by altering the radiative properties of the atmosphere. For instance, aerosols in the form of dust particles reflect the incoming solar radiation to space, thereby reducing the amount of radiation available to the ground. This is known as 'direct' radiative forcing of aerosols. Aerosols also serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and change the cloud albedo and microphysical properties of clouds, known as 'indirect' radiative forcing of aerosols. Direct and indirect radiative forcing by mineral dust are observed over a desert case study in China as well as a highly vegetated case study over Nile Delta, Egypt, using boundary layer dispersion (BLD), albedo, sensible heat flux (SHF), latent heat flux (LHF) and out going long wave radiation (OLR) parameters. During the presence of the dust event, shortwave fluxes largely decrease accompanied by an abrupt increase in the down-welling long wave fluxes resulting in surface forcing. This leads to absorption of the shortwave and long wave radiations resulting in a positive forcing in the top of the atmosphere. In this research we are focusing on the radiative impacts of the dust over some meteorological parameters.
Direct radiative effects during intense Mediterranean desert dust outbreaks
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2018
The direct radiative effect (DRE) during 20 intense and widespread dust outbreaks, which affected the broader Mediterranean basin over the period March 2000-February 2013, has been calculated with the NMMB-MONARCH model at regional (Sahara and European continent) and shortterm temporal (84 h) scales. According to model simulations, the maximum dust aerosol optical depths (AODs) range from ∼ 2.5 to ∼ 5.5 among the identified cases. At midday, dust outbreaks locally induce a NET (shortwave plus longwave) strong atmospheric warming (DRE ATM values up to 285 W m −2 ; Niger-Chad; dust AODs up to ∼ 5.5) and a strong surface cooling (DRE NETSURF values down to −337 W m −2), whereas they strongly reduce the downward radiation at the ground level (DRE SURF values down to −589 W m −2 over the Eastern Mediterranean, for extremely high dust AODs, 4.5-5). During night-time, reverse effects of smaller magnitude are found. At the top of the atmosphere (TOA), positive (planetary warming) DREs up to 85 W m −2 are found over highly reflective surfaces (Niger-Chad; dust AODs up to ∼ 5.5) while negative (planetary cooling) DREs down to −184 W m −2 (Eastern Mediterranean; dust AODs 4.5-5) are computed over dark surfaces at noon. Dust outbreaks significantly affect the mean regional radiation budget, with NET DREs ranging from −8.5 to 0.5 W m −2 , from −31.6 to 2.1 W m −2 , from −22.2 to 2.2 W m −2 and from −1.7 to 20.4 W m −2 for TOA, SURF, NETSURF and ATM, respectively. Although the shortwave DREs are larger than the longwave ones, the latter are comparable or even larger at TOA, particularly over the Sahara at midday. As a response to the strong surface daytime cooling, dust outbreaks cause a reduction in the regional sensible and latent heat fluxes by up to 45 and 4 W m −2 , respectively, averaged over land areas of the simulation domain. Dust outbreaks reduce the temperature at 2 m by up to 4 K during daytime , whereas a reverse tendency of similar magnitude is found during nighttime. Depending on the vertical distribution of dust loads and time, mineral particles heat (cool) the atmosphere by up to 0.9 K (0.8 K) during daytime (night-time) within atmospheric dust layers. Beneath and above the dust clouds, mineral particles cool (warm) the atmosphere by up to 1.3 K (1.2 K) at noon (night-time). On a regional mean basis, negative feedbacks on the total emitted dust (reduced by 19.5 %) and dust AOD (reduced by 6.9 %) are found when dust interacts with the radiation. Through the consideration of dust radiative effects in numerical simulations, the model positive and negative biases for the downward surface SW or LW radiation, respectively, with respect to Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) measurements, are reduced. In addition, they also reduce the model near-surface (at 2 m) nocturnal cold biases by up to 0.5 K (regional averages), as well as the model warm biases at 950 and 700 hPa, where the dust concentration is maximized, by up to 0.4 K. However, improvements are relatively small and do not happen in all episodes because other model first-order errors may dominate over the expected improvements, and the misrepresentation of the dust plumes' spatiotemporal features and optical Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 8758 A. Gkikas et al.: Direct radiative effects during intense Mediterranean desert dust outbreaks properties may even produce a double penalty effect. The enhancement of dust forecasts via data assimilation techniques may significantly improve the results.