Feedbacks between Vegetation, Aerosol and Cloud Processes Using Observations and a Unified Regional Climate Model

云和气溶胶对陆地碳和水循环的影响及其对大气过程的反馈是理解陆地-大气耦合的核心。该项目将促进我们对植被-二氧化碳-气溶胶-云相互作用的理解，并改进区域尺度模拟系统中二氧化碳和气溶胶诱导的反馈的表现。这项研究将利用外联来扩大K-12教育，并让公众了解这些重要的相互作用，以帮助我们更好地了解地球的气候系统。这项研究将把现有的CSU-RAMS生物圈-大气耦合模拟系统(SIB-RAMS)与云分辨气溶胶-RAMS(包括直接和间接影响)合并，形成一个完整的、基于过程的植被-气溶胶-云模拟系统(VAC-RAMS)。这将使我们能够更好地了解由云、气溶胶和云-气溶胶相互作用引起的陆地表面能量、水和二氧化碳通量的时空变异性。这项研究还将确定对云-气溶胶相互作用至关重要的生态系统反馈，并使用VAC-RAMS和2007年实地活动的观测对这些反馈进行量化。这将使研究人员能够通过生物物理和生物地球化学途径评估气溶胶对云的强迫作用的重要性。

The impacts of clouds and aerosols on terrestrial carbon and water cycles and the resultant feedbacks to atmospheric processes are core in understanding land-atmosphere coupling. This project will advance our understanding of vegetation-CO2-aerosol-cloud interactions, and improve the representation of CO2- and aerosol- induced feedbacks within a regional-scale modeling system. This study will use outreach to broaden K-12 education and the inform the public on these important interactions to help us better understand the earth's climate system. This study will merge the existing CSU-RAMS coupled biosphere-atmosphere modeling system (SiB-RAMS) with the cloud-resolving Aerosol-RAMS (that includes direct and indirect effects) to form an integrated, process-based Vegetation-Aerosol-Cloud modeling system (VAC-RAMS). This will allow us to better understand spatial and temporal variability in land surface fluxes of energy, water, and CO2, induced by clouds, aerosols and cloud-aerosol interactions. The study will also identify ecosystem feedbacks that are critical to cloud-aerosol interactions and quantify these feedbacks using VAC-RAMS and observations from a 2007 field campaign. This will allow the investigators to assess the importance of aerosol forcing on clouds through biophysical and biogeochemical pathways.