Potential impact of aerosols on convective clouds revealed by Himawari-8 observations over different terrain types in eastern China

作者：Tianmeng Chen, Zhanqing Li, Ralph A. Kahn, Chuanfeng Zhao, Daniel Rosenfeld, Jianping Guo, Wenchao Han, Dandan Chen · 发表于：Atmospheric chemistry and physics · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.5194/acp-21-6199-2021 · 被引用次数：43 · 研究领域：Atmospheric aerosols and clouds、Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols、Climate variability and models

Abstract. Convective clouds are common and play a major role in Earth's water cycle and energy balance; they may even develop into storms and cause severe rainfall events. To understand the convective cloud development process, this study investigates the impact of aerosols on convective clouds by considering the influence of both topography and diurnal variation in radiation. By combining texture analysis, clustering, and thresholding methods, we identify all convective clouds in two warm seasons (May–September, 2016/17) in eastern China based on Himawari-8 Level 1 data. Having large diurnally resolved cloud data together with surface meteorological and environmental measurements, we investigate convective cloud properties and their variation, stratified by elevation and diurnal change. We then analyze the potential impact of aerosol on convective clouds under different meteorological conditions and topographies. In general, convective clouds tend to occur preferentially under polluted conditions in the morning, which reverses in the afternoon. Convective cloud fraction first increases then decreases with aerosol loading, which may contribute to this phenomenon. Topography and diurnal meteorological variations may affect the strength of aerosol microphysical and radiative effects. Updraft is always stronger along the windward slopes of mountains and plateaus, especially in northern China. The prevailing southerly wind near the foothills of mountains and plateaus is likely to...