Identification

Title

Dust radiative effects on atmospheric thermodynamics and tropical cyclogenesis over the Atlantic Ocean using WRF-Chem coupled with an AOD data assimilation system

Abstract

This study investigated the dust radiative effects on atmospheric thermodynamics and tropical cyclogenesis over the Atlantic Ocean using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) coupled with an aerosol data assimilation (DA) system. MODIS AOD (aerosol optical depth) data were assimilated with the Gridpoint Statistical Interpolation (GSI) three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) DA scheme to depict the Saharan dust outbreak events in the 2006 summer. Comparisons with Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET), and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) observations showed that the system was capable of reproducing the dust distribution. Two sets of 180 h forecasts were conducted with the dust radiative effects activated (RE_ON) and inactivated (RE_OFF) respectively. Differences between the RE_ON and RE_OFF forecasts showed that low-altitude (high-altitude) dust inhibits (favors) convection owing to changes in convective inhibition (CIN). Heating in dust layers immediately above the boundary layer increases inhibition, whereas sufficiently elevated heating allows cooling above the boundary layer that reduces convective inhibition. Semi-direct effects in which clouds are altered by thermodynamic changes are also noted, which then alter cloudradiative temperature (T) changes. The analysis of a tropical cyclone (TC) suppression case on 5 September shows evidence of enhanced convective inhibition by direct heating in dust, but it also suggests that the low-predictability dynamics of moist convection reduces the determinism of the effects of dust on timescales of TC development (days).

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d75h7jp3

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-06-30T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact