Black Carbon and West African Monsoon precipitation:observations and simulations
Name
Huang-2009-Black Carbon and West African Monsoon precipitation.pdf
Size
1.83 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Huang, J.
Adams, A.
Wang, Chien
Zhang, C.
Date Issued
November 2009
Journal
Annales Geophysicae
Publisher
European Geosciences Union / Copernicus
Citation
Huang, J. et al. “Black Carbon and West African Monsoon Precipitation: Observations and Simulations.” Annales Geophysicae 27.11 (2009) : 4171-4181. © Author(s) 2009
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We have recently investigated large-scale co-variability between aerosol and precipitation and other meteorological variables in the West African Monsoon (WAM) region using long term satellite observations and reanalysis data. In this study we compared the observational results to a global model simulation including only direct radiative forcing of black carbon (BC). From both observations and model simulations we found that in boreal cold seasons anomalously high African aerosols are associated with significant reductions in cloud amount, cloud top height, and surface precipitation. These results suggest that the observed precipitation reduction in the WAM region is caused by radiative effect of BC. The result also suggests that the BC effect on precipitation is nonlinear.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Global Change Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-4171-2009
