Constraining the total aerosol indirect effect in the LMDZ and ECHAM4 GCMs using MODIS satellite data

Open access
Date
2005Type
- Journal Article
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics
Abstract
Aerosol indirect effects are considered to be the most uncertain yet important an-thropogenic forcing of climate change. The goal of the present study is to reducethis uncertainty by constraining two different general circulation models (LMDZ andECHAM4) with satellite data. We build a statistical relationship between cloud droplet number concentration and the optical depth of the fine aerosol mode as a measureof the aerosol indirect effect using MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) satellite data, and constrain the model parameterizations to match this rela-tionship. We include here “empirical” formulations for the cloud albedo effect as well asparameterizations of the cloud lifetime effect. When fitting the model parameterizations to the satellite data, consistently in both models, the radiative forcing by the combinedaerosol indirect effect is reduced considerably, down to−0.5 and−0.3Wm−2, for LMDZand ECHAM4, respectively. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000046643Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Atmospheric Chemistry and PhysicsVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
CopernicusOrganisational unit
03690 - Lohmann, Ulrike / Lohmann, Ulrike
More
Show all metadata
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics