Large contribution of meteorological factors to inter-decadal changes in regional aerosol optical depth

Che, Huizheng; Gui, Ke; Xia, Xiangao; Wang, Yaqiang; Holben, B. N.; Goloub, Philippe; Cuevas, E.; Wang, Hong; Zheng, Yu; Zhao, Huiling; Zhang, Xiaoye

doi:10.5194/acp-2019-360

Cited by 14 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Overall, the spatial patterns and seasonal variations of AOD trends in this study are consistent with previous studies of AOD evolution (e.g., Che et al, ) and suggest a relatively high degree of consistency in AOD trends between the three data sets. The results thus provide confidence in use of MERRA‐2 to examine causes and consequences of these trends.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Long‐Term Trends of High Aerosol Pollution Events and Their Climatic Impacts in North America Using Multiple Satellite Retrievals and Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2

Jin

Pryor

2020

JGR Atmospheres

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Mean magnitudes and temporal trends in aerosol optical depth (AOD) from satellite observations and an aerosol reanalysis exhibit a negative‐positive east‐northwest dipole across the contiguous United States with large magnitude negative trends over the eastern United States while small magnitude positive trends over the northwestern states. Based on analyses of Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2, the AOD reduction over the eastern United States appears to be largely attributable to reductions in aerosol sulfate, while there have been marked increases in aerosol‐organic and elemental carbon over almost all of the contiguous United States and particularly the northwestern states. Long‐term trends of high aerosol pollution events (HAPEs; days with AOD over the long‐term local 90th daily AOD percentile) during 2000–2017 also indicate that over the eastern United States, both the frequency and spatial scale of summer HAPEs exhibit significant negative trends, while those of moderate aerosol events (days with AOD between the local 30th and 70th AOD percentiles) exhibit weak upward trends. Opposing trends, of smaller magnitude, are derived in the northwestern United States and southwestern Canada. Net and shortwave solar radiation show positive trends at the surface and top of atmosphere under clear‐sky conditions over the eastern United States consistent with the reduction in AOD. However, skin temperatures do not indicate significant trends during all days or HAPEs, indicating that the aerosol‐induced radiation trends are not sufficient to manifest trends in surface temperature. Precipitation during HAPEs appears to have increased during 2000–2017 over the eastern and central United States, indicating that the reduction in aerosol may already be enhancing the precipitation through aerosol‐cloud interactions.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 91%

Long‐Term Trends of High Aerosol Pollution Events and Their Climatic Impacts in North America Using Multiple Satellite Retrievals and Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2

Jin

Pryor

2020

JGR Atmospheres

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“…-The trends in the meteorological parameters could be investigated in parallel with the aerosol trends because they affect the aerosols life cycle and their optical properties (Che et al, 2019). Hypothetical trends in wind velocity could produce trends in the loads of sea salt and dust and, as seen in the last section, trends in OD could also be enhanced by relative humidity changes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of climate model aerosol trends with ground-based observations over the last two decades – an AeroCom and CMIP6 analysis

Mortier¹,

Gliß²,

Schulz³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Abstract. This study presents a multi-parameter analysis of aerosol trends over the last two decades at regional and global scales. Regional time series have been computed for a set of nine optical, chemical composition and mass aerosol properties by using the observations of several ground-based networks. From these regional time series the aerosol trends have been derived for different regions of the world. Most of the properties related to aerosol loading exhibit negative trends, both at the surface and in the total atmospheric column. Significant decreases of aerosol optical depth (AOD) are found in Europe, North America, South America and North Africa, ranging from −1.3 %/yr to −3.1 %/yr. An error and representativity analysis of the incomplete observational data has been performed using model data subsets in order to investigate how likely the observed trends represent the actual trends happening in the regions over the full study period from 2000 to 2014. This analysis reveals that significant uncertainty is associated with some of the regional trends due to time and space sampling deficiencies. The set of observed regional trends has then been used for the evaluation of the climate models and their skills in reproducing the aerosol trends. Model performance is found to vary depending on the parameters and the regions of the world. The models tend to capture trends in AOD, column Angstrom exponent, sulfate and particulate matter well (except in North Africa), but show larger discrepancies for coarse mode AOD. The rather good agreement of the trends, across different aerosol parameters between models and observations, when co-locating them in time and space, implies that global model trends, including those in poorly monitored regions, are likely correct. The models can help to provide a global picture of the aerosol trends by filling the gaps in regions not covered by observations. The calculation of aerosol trends at a global scale reveals a different picture from the one depicted by solely relying on ground based observations. Using a model with complete diagnostics (NorESM2) we find a global increase of AOD of about 0.2 %/yr between 2000 and 2014, primarily caused by an increase of the loads of organic aerosol, sulfate and black carbon.

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“…Measured AOD values at 27 China Aerosol Remote Sensing Network (CARSNET) stations were used to validate the accuracy of products, and more information about the CARSNET stations can be found in Che et al . (, ). The CMA data set include 839 stations across latitudes 16.5°N–53.29°N, longitudes 75.11°E–132.56°E, and the AOD data set include 27 stations across latitudes 22.63°N–47.73°N, longitudes 79.93°E–126.77°E (Table ), and the spatial distributions of them can be seen in Figure .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends in downward surface shortwave radiation from multi‐source data over China during 1984–2015

Zhou

Lin

Wang

et al. 2019

Intl Journal of Climatology

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The clear knowledge of decadal variability of surface solar radiation (SSR) is of vitally significant for understanding hydrological and biological processes and climate prediction. However, existing studies have shown observed SSR over China may have large discrepancies and inhomogeneity in decadal variability due to sensitivity drift, inaccurate calibrations and instrument replacement. Therefore, a new procedure of station selection was proposed to eliminate errors and to derive “true” SSR values in this study. Afterward, two satellite retrieves of SSR, including Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System‐energy balanced and filled product (CERES‐EBAF) (edition 4) and Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment‐Surface Radiation Budget (GEWEX‐SRB) (Version 3.0), and three reanalysis products, including National Centers for Environmental Prediction‐National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP‐NCAR), national centers for environmental prediction‐/department of energy (NCEP‐DOE) and Modern‐Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA‐2) were evaluated using “true” SSR values at 39 homogeneous stations from the China Meteorological Administration and it was found that although all five products overestimated SSR, two satellite retrieves showed better accuracy with an overall R of 0.95, an root mean squared error (RMSE) of 20.4 W m−2 and mean absolute bias error (MAE) of 14.9 W m−2 for CERES‐EBAF and an overall R of 0.92, an RMSE of 27.7 W m−2 and MAE of 21.2 W m−2 for GEWEX‐SRB across China. Meanwhile, inter‐comparisons between trends of observations and trends of two satellite retrieves in this study showed that the new trends derived from two satellite retrieves (+0.78 W m−2 decade−1) were good agreement with trends of observation (+0.92 W m−2 decade−1) from 1994 to 2015. However, trends of SSR (+5.8 W m−2 decade−1) in situ measurements were still in disagreement with the trends of SSR (−3.7 W m−2 decade−1) derived from two satellite retrieves from 1984 to 1993 because of the sensitivity drift and instrument replacement in this period. The possible reasons for decadal variability of SSR in China were detected and it was found that variations in aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol‐cloud interaction, rather than cloud, were suggested to be likely the main influencing factor of decadal variability of SSR across China from 1984 to 2015.

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Large contribution of meteorological factors to inter-decadal changes in regional aerosol optical depth

Cited by 14 publications

References 74 publications

Long‐Term Trends of High Aerosol Pollution Events and Their Climatic Impacts in North America Using Multiple Satellite Retrievals and Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2

Long‐Term Trends of High Aerosol Pollution Events and Their Climatic Impacts in North America Using Multiple Satellite Retrievals and Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2

Evaluation of climate model aerosol trends with ground-based observations over the last two decades – an AeroCom and CMIP6 analysis

Trends in downward surface shortwave radiation from multi‐source data over China during 1984–2015

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