Aeroclima: direct and indirect effects of aerosols on climate in Amazonia and Pantanal

Abstract

The proposal AEROCLIMA will work on an integrated strategy to enhance the knowledge on the direct and indirect effects of aerosols on climate for Amazonia and Pantanal regions. The basic concept for AEROCLIMA is that of an integrated study, combining field studies, remote sensing and modeling. The idea is to reduce uncertainties on aerosol forcing and to evaluate the impact of aerosols on the ecosystem, including into the hydrological cycle trough an approach with detailed aerosol and radiation measurements in several sites, coupled with a modeling component with 1D, regional and global climate models approach. Remote sensing of aerosol and clouds will also help to provide the large scale aerosol and clouds distribution and characterization. Key aerosol properties such as aerosol size distribution, mass, composition, light scattering and absorption, CCN activity, and others will be measured one year in each of3 aerosol sampling stations: North of Manaus (pristine natural biogenic emissions), Alta Floresta (biomass burning aerosols) and Campo Grande at the Pantanal region. Intensive campaigns such as CLAIRE 2010 will use aerosol mass spectrometers and advanced instrumentation to better characterize aerosol properties. We will also have aerosol vertical profiles with continuous Raman Lidar measurements as well as 7 AERONET sun photometers and radiometers in continuous operation. Airborne measurements using an instrumental aircraft (INPE Bandeirante) will explore the large scale aerosol properties and distribution over Amazonia and Pantanal. The large scale will be observed with the use of MODIS (on both Terra and Aqua) and CALlPSO measurements. Novel remote sensing instruments will be developed to measure cloud water phase, as well as droplet size distribution. The modeling component will use and develop CATT -BRAMS and WRF-Chem to study the regional aerosol distribution, properties, impacts and forcing. LES and cloud resolving models will be used to study aerosol-cloud interactions. The development effort on these regional models will be implemented at the existing CPTEC GCM, and further implemented in the Brazilian Model ofthe Global Climate System (BMGCS). We will help to build the radiation code at the BMGCS based on data and parameterizations obtained in this proposal. The models will also be used to perform sensitivity studies to investigate the most important parameters on the aerosol effects on climate. The joint use of a integrated approach with extensive measurements, remote sensing and modeling will allow a new and more complete vision ofthe impact of aerosols on climate, particularly over South America. The results should be applicable over tropical areas (Africa and Southeast Asia), with similar atmospheric impacts. (AU)