[A-AS11] Atmospheric Chemistry

[AAS11-01] Understanding aerosol-cloud-climate interaction with satellite observation and global modeling

★Invited Papers

*Kentaroh Suzuki¹ (1.Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo)

Keywords:Aerosol, Cloud, Climate, Global modeling, Satellite observation

Aerosols and clouds, particles suspended in the Earth’s atmosphere, are known to have a profound impact on the global climate through perturbing the global energy balance. These two kinds of particles exert the climatic impacts not only in their own right but also through their complex interactions, both the former and the latter respectively still being subject to substantial uncertainties. However, recent advances in satellite observations and global modeling, particularly with their combined use, have remarkably progressed understandings of aerosols and clouds. Specifically, emergences of active sensors onboard spacecraft have offered a new dimension of observational information, and their synergistic use with traditional passive sensors has enabled to observationally “see” some of key physical processes regarding aerosols and clouds in the form of a particular statistics constructed from multiple satellite observables. Application of this approach to numerical global models also makes it possible to evaluate and improve the models, including both traditional climate models and emerging global cloud-resolving models, in their representations of fundamental physical processes of aerosols and clouds. In this talk, such a new “process-oriented” approach of satellite data analysis and model diagnostics will be highlighted with some examples from recent studies by the author and collaborators on cloud microphysical processes and their interaction with aerosols to demonstrate how multi-sensor satellite measurements can inform the model improvement at their “building-block” level. The outcome of these process-based model constraints will also be discussed in terms of global energy budget perturbations due to aerosols and clouds to explore a fundamental link between the microscopic (i.e. microphysical) and macroscopic (i.e. energetic) aspects of the aerosol-cloud-climate interaction. The remaining gap in consistently understanding the two aspects will then be argued to motivate further efforts needed with new capabilities of near-future satellite missions and their collaborations with global modeling.