Long-term study of aerosol-cloud interactions and their impact on climate using ground-based remote sensing in the Central Amazonia

Abstract

Although some advances have been recently achieved in understanding the complex processes involved in aerosol-cloud interactions, the impact of anthropogenic aerosols on tropical cloud development and in the radiative budget is far from being fully understood. A great opportunity to study the aerosol-cloud interactions and its effects in tropical areas will be the GoAmazon 2014-2015 that will investigate the interactions of the urban plume of Manaus with emissions of the pristine Amazonian forest. The GoAmazon experiment will last for two years, from January 2014 to December 2015 and during this experiment an unprecedented large set of comprehensive simultaneous measurements of aerosol and cloud properties will be achieved using several state-of-the-art instruments and a coherent set of modeling tools.As a complementary part of this FAPESP post-doctorate research project we aim to use of ground-based collocated remote sensors during the GoAmazon experiment to study the impact of aerosols on stratiform clouds microphysical and macrophysical properties over the Amazonia, critically important for the aerosol-cloud interactions and the aerosol indirect effect on climate. Particularly, cloud droplet size and cloud cover will be analyzed to estimate the cloud response to changes in the aerosol loading. Vertical profiles of the atmosphere obtained by two Lidars will be used to estimate the aerosol loading at cloud base. Microwave and narrow-field of view radiometers will be used to estimate the liquid water path, cloud optical depth and cloud droplet effective radius. The cloud cover will be estimated by a Total Sky Imager, and the updraft velocity will be obtained by a Doppler Lidar. Full aerosol chemical and physical properties, cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), and many critical properties will be measured in detail.Herein we propose a one year internship at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in collaboration with Dr. Graham Feingold, to jointly perform the data analysis of the GoAmazon experiment, and extend them with remote sensing measurements. High resolution transport models and 3 km spatial resolution aerosol products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) will help to assess the aerosol fields around Manaus. The comprehensive set of measurements and modeling tools available is a unique opportunity advance the knowledge on aerosol-clouds interactions in tropical areas and their impact on local climate. (AU)