[1] The African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) is a major international campaign investigating far-reaching aspects of the African monsoon, climate and the hydrological cycle. A special observing period was established for the dry season (SOP0) with a focus on aerosol and radiation measurements. SOP0 took place during January and February 2006 and involved several ground-based measurement sites across west Africa. These were augmented by aircraft measurements made by the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) aircraft during the Dust and Biomass-burning Experiment (DABEX), measurements from an ultralight aircraft, and dedicated modeling efforts. We provide an overview of these measurement and modeling studies together with an analysis of the meteorological conditions that determined the aerosol transport and link the results together to provide a balanced synthesis. The biomass burning aerosol was significantly more absorbing than that measured in other areas and, unlike industrial areas, the ratio of excess carbon monoxide to organic carbon was invariant, which may be owing to interaction between the organic carbon and mineral dust aerosol. The mineral dust aerosol in situ filter measurements close to Niamey reveals very little absorption, while other measurements and remote sensing inversions suggest significantly more absorption. The influence of both mineral dust and biomass burning aerosol on the radiation budget is significant throughout the period, implying that meteorological models should include their radiative effects for accurate weather forecasts and climate simulations. Generally, the operational meteorological models that simulate the production and transport of mineral dust show skill at lead times of 5 days or more. Climate models that need to accurately simulate the vertical profiles of both anthropogenic and natural aerosols to accurately represent the direct and indirect effects of aerosols appear to do a reasonable job, although the magnitude of the aerosol scattering is strongly dependent upon the emission data set.

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[1] This paper presents measurements of the vertical distribution of aerosol extinction coefficient over West Africa during the Dust and Biomass-burning Aerosol Experiment (DABEX)/African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis dry season Special Observing Period Zero (AMMA-SOP0). In situ aircraft measurements from the UK FAAM aircraft have been compared with two ground-based lidars (POLIS and ARM MPL) and an airborne lidar on an ultralight aircraft. In general, mineral dust was observed at low altitudes (up to 2 km), and a mixture of biomass burning aerosol and dust was observed at altitudes of 2-5 km. The study exposes difficulties associated with spatial and temporal variability when intercomparing aircraft and ground measurements. Averaging over many profiles provided a better means of assessing consistent errors and biases associated with in situ sampling instruments and retrievals of lidar ratios. Shortwave radiative transfer calculations and a 3-year simulation with the HadGEM2-A climate model show that the radiative effect of biomass burning aerosol was somewhat sensitive to the vertical distribution of aerosol. In particular, when the observed low-level dust layer was included in the model, the absorption of solar radiation by the biomass burning aerosols increased by 10%. We conclude that this absorption enhancement was caused by the dust reflecting solar radiation up into the biomass burning aerosol layer. This result illustrates that the radiative forcing of anthropogenic absorbing aerosol can be sensitive to the presence of natural aerosol species.

Trade-wind cumuli constitute the cloud type with the highest frequency of occurrence on Earth, and it has been shown that their sensitivity to changing environmental conditions will critically influence the magnitude and pace of future global warming. Research over the last decade has pointed out the importance of the interplay between clouds, convection and circulation in controling this sensitivity. 123Surv Geophys (2017) 38:1529-1568 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-017-9428-0 cumuli at cloud base is very sensitive to changes in environmental conditions, while process models suggest the opposite. To understand and resolve this contradiction, we propose to organize a field campaign aimed at quantifying the physical properties of tradecumuli (e.g., cloud fraction and water content) as a function of the large-scale environment. Beyond a better understanding of clouds-circulation coupling processes, the campaign will provide a reference data set that may be used as a benchmark for advancing the modelling and the satellite remote sensing of clouds and circulation. It will also be an opportunity for complementary investigations such as evaluating model convective parameterizations or studying the role of ocean mesoscale eddies in air-sea interactions and convective organization.