Collaborative Research: Using Controlled Aerosol Perturbations to Improve Understanding of Cloud Responses for Climate

合作研究：利用受控气溶胶扰动提高对云对气候响应的理解

• 批准号: 1013423
• 负责人: Lynn Russell
• 金额: $ 24.36万
• 依托单位: University of California-San Diego Scripps Inst of Oceanography
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-15 至 2014-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1013423&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Using; Controlled; Aerosol

Particles in the atmosphere play a key role in cloud formation, acting as nuclei for water droplets. Clouds play an important role in absorbing and reflecting heat, hence they can potentially mitigate or exacerbate global warming. Aerosol-cloud radiative interactions are widely held to be the largest single source of uncertainty in climate model projections of future climate change due to increasing anthropogenic emissions (IPCC, 2007). The underlying causes of this uncertainty among modeled predictions of climate are the gaps in our fundamental understanding of cloud processes. There has been significant progress with both observations and models on these important questions. However, the quantitative representation of these processes is nontrivial and limits our ability to represent them in global climate models (GCMs), resulting in the largest uncertainties in predictions of future climate. Given the timeliness of these questions for advancing GCMs, it is essential to address the unanswered questions in cloud dynamical response to aerosol perturbations.Intellectual merit. This research is a targeted aircraft campaign with embedded modeling studies to inform the experiment planning and to facilitate the interpretation of the results. The study will use the Center for Interdisciplinary Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Studies (CIRPAS) Twin Otter aircraft in July 2011 off the coast of Monterey, California, with a full payload of instruments to measure particle and cloud number, mass and composition distributions. The research is composed of three novel and important additional, climate-focused studies:1. Controlled release and atmospheric distribution of three different size ranges of particles in flight and on or by a dedicated ship;2. Large Eddy Simulations and Aerosol-Cloud Parcel modeling studies constrained by the observations to test our ability to quantitatively predict the dynamical response to increases in particle concentrations in the natural atmosphere;3. Satellite analyses of marine stratocumulus to constrain the radiative properties of the natural, perturbed, and regional cloud systems. Broader impacts. The broader scientific impacts of the research will be the improved understanding of fundamental aerosol-cloud processes that can be incorporated in global climate models to better inform decision makers. The broader educational impacts of the research will be realized through: (1) Promotion of teaching, training and learning through development and piloting of an informal science education program targeting an underserved audience; (2) Broadened participation of underrepresented groups - in this case, retired and elderly people - in research as well as in outreach; (3) Enhancement of infrastructure for teaching through partnerships with an established educational organization (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute); (4) Broad dissemination of results through presentations, peer-reviewed publications and via the web; and (5) Societal benefits in terms of improved understanding of climate science and the related ethical issues.

大气中的颗粒在云形成中起着关键作用，充当水滴的核。 云在吸收和反射热量中起着重要的作用，因此它们可能会减轻或加剧全球变暖。 由于人为排放的增加，气溶胶云辐射相互作用被广泛认为是未来气候变化的气候模型预测中最大的单一不确定性来源（IPCC，2007年）。 在模型的气候预测中，这种不确定性的根本原因是我们对云过程的基本理解的差距。 在这些重要问题上观察和模型都取得了重大进展。 但是，这些过程的定量表示是非平凡的，并且限制了我们在全球气候模型（GCM）中代表它们的能力，从而导致最大的不确定性在未来气候的预测中。 鉴于这些问题的及时性用于推进GCM，至关重要的是要解决对气溶胶扰动的云动态回答中未解决的问题。 这项研究是一项针对性的飞机运动，其中包含嵌入式建模研究，以告知实验计划并促进结果的解释。 该研究将在2011年7月在加利福尼亚州蒙特雷海岸的2011年7月使用跨学科的远程飞机研究中心（CIRPAS）Twin Otter飞机，并提供全部有效载荷，以衡量粒子和云数，质量和组成分布的仪器。 该研究由三个新颖而重要的以气候为中心的研究组成：1。在飞行中，或乘坐专用船上的三个不同尺寸颗粒范围的受控释放和大气分布； 2。大型涡流模拟和气雾云的包裹建模研究受到观察的约束，以测试我们定量预测自然气氛中颗粒浓度增加的动态响应的能力； 3。卫星分析海洋层，以限制天然，扰动和区域云系统的辐射特性。更广泛的影响。 这项研究的更广泛的科学影响将是对基本气溶胶云过程的理解，可以将其纳入全球气候模型，以更好地为决策​​者提供信息。 该研究的更广泛的教育影响将通过：（1）通过开发和驾驶针对服务不足受众的非正式科学教育计划来促进教学，培训和学习； （2）扩大了代表性不足的群体的参与 - 在这种情况下，退休和老年人 - 在研究和外展中的参与； （3）通过与既定的教育组织（Osher Lifelong Learning Institute）建立合作伙伴关系的基础设施来增强教学的基础设施； （4）通过演示，同行评审的出版物和网络广泛传播结果； （5）社会利益在对气候科学和相关道德问题的理解方面的发展方面。