Resumen

IORGA, G.  y  STEFAN, S.. Sensitivity of cloud albedo to aerosol concentration and spectral dispersion of cloud droplet size distribution. Atmósfera [online]. 2007, vol.20, n.3, pp.247-269. ISSN 0187-6236.

Both the enhancement of the aerosol number concentration and the relative dispersion of the cloud droplet size distribution (spectral dispersion) on a regional scale can modify the cloud reflectivity. This work is focused on the role that pre-cloud aerosol plays in cloud reflectivity. Log-normal aerosol size distributions were used to describe two aerosol types: marine and rural. The number of aerosols that activate to droplets was obtained based on Abdul-Razzak and Ghan's (2000) activation parameterization. The cloud albedo taking into account the spectral dispersion effect in the parameterization of cloud effective radius and in the scattering asymmetry factor has been estimated. Two different scaling factors to account for dispersion were used. The sensitivity of cloud albedo to spectral dispersion-cloud droplet number concentration relationship in connection to the changes in liquid water content (LWC), and the cloud droplet effective radius has been also investigated. We obtained higher values of effective radius when dispersion is taken into account, with respect to the base case (without considering dispersion). The inferred absolute differences in effective radius values between calculations with each of the scaling factors are below 0.8 |am as LWC ranges between 0.1 and 1.0 g m^-3. The optical depth decreased by up to 14% (marine), and up to 29% (continental) when dispersion is considered in both effective radius and asymmetry factor (β_LDR scaling factor). Correspondingly, the relative change in cloud albedo is up to 6% (marine) and up to 11% (continental) clouds. For continental clouds, the calculated effective radius when dispersion is considered fits well within the measured range of effective radius in SCAR-B project. The calculated cloud albedo when dispersion is considered shows better agreement with the estimated cloud albedo from measured effective radius in SCAR-B project than the cloud albedo calculated without dispersion. In cleaner conditions of marine clouds, only β_PL-scaled albedo fits satisfactory within the validity range of albedo inferred using an effective radius-liquid water content relationship proposed by Reid et al. (1999) from ASTEX project. The low correlation coefficient of the effective radius-liquid water content parameterization in ASTEX may also play a role within.

Palabras llave : Aerosol size distribution; spectral dispersion; effective radius; cloud albedo; indirect aerosol effect.