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1.
Atmospheric aerosols influence the earth's radiative balance directly through scattering and absorbing solar radiation, and indirectly through affecting cloud properties. An understanding of aerosol optical properties is fundamental to studies of aerosol effects on climate. Although many such studies have been undertaken, large uncertainties in describing aerosol optical characteristics remain, especially regarding the absorption properties of different aerosols. Aerosol radiative effects are considered as either positive or negative perturbations to the radiation balance, and they include direct, indirect (albedo effect and cloud lifetime effect), and semi-direct effects. The total direct effect of anthropogenic aerosols is negative (cooling), although some components may contribute a positive effect (warming). Both the albedo effect and cloud lifetime effect cool the atmosphere by increasing cloud optical depth and cloud cover, respectively. Absorbing aerosols, such as carbonaceous aerosols and dust, exert a positive forcing at the top of atmosphere and a negative forcing at the surface, and they can directly warm the atmosphere. Internally mixed black carbon aerosols produce a stronger warming effect than externally mixed black carbon particles do. The semi-direct effect of absorbing aerosols could amplify this warming effect. Based on observational (ground-and satellite-based) and simulation studies, this paper reviews current progress in research regarding the optical properties and radiative effects of aerosols and also discusses several important issues to be addressed in future studies. 相似文献
2.
中国沙漠沙尘气溶胶对沙漠源区及北太平洋地区大气辐射加热的影响 总被引：9，自引：5，他引：4
针对2001年春季中国沙漠和北太平洋上空沙尘气溶胶的空间分布情况,利用辐射传输模式,分别计算了沙尘气溶胶对沙漠和海洋大气的辐射加热（冷却）率,并讨论了低云、中云、高云对辐射加热率的影响。结果表明:春季,位于中国沙漠和太平洋上空的沙尘层对大气具有明显的加热作用。当沙漠上空光学厚度为1.0,海洋上空光学厚度为0.3时,取春季平均太阳高度角,沙尘层对应的净辐射加热率分别为2.8 K/d和0.4 K/d。由于WMO推荐的沙尘模型比东亚沙尘模型对太阳辐射吸收强,采用该模型计算得到的中国沙漠和海洋上空的加热率比采用东亚沙尘模型分别高1.5 K/d和0.2 K/d。沙尘对大气的加热率很大程度上依赖于沙尘的大气载荷。这种依赖性首先受太阳高度角的影响, 其次也受地表反照率的影响。云对沙尘层辐射加热（冷却）率的影响与云的高度和厚度有关。低云能够加热沙漠和海洋上空的沙尘大气,冷却地面和洋面。中、高云冷却沙漠上空的沙尘层。在海洋上空,中云对云层以上的沙尘层有加热作用,对云层以下的沙尘层有冷却作用。高云对海洋上空沙尘层的辐射加热（冷却）率的影响比较小,加热还是冷却,取决于云的厚度,当云层较薄时,加热沙尘层,而当云层较厚的时候,有可能冷却沙尘层。 相似文献
3.
Summary The relationship between clouds and the surface radiative fluxes over the Arctic Ocean are explored by conducting a series of modelling experiments using a one-dimensional thermodynamic sea ice model. The sensitivity of radiative flux to perturbations in cloud fraction and cloud optical depth are determined. These experiments illustrate the substantial effect that clouds have on the state of the sea ice and on the surface radiative fluxes. The effect of clouds on the net flux of radiation at the surface is very complex over the Arctic Ocean particularly due to the presence of the underlying sea ice. Owing to changes in surface albedo and temperature associated with changing cloud properties, there is a strong non-linearity between cloud properties and surface radiative fluxes. The model results are evaluated in three different contexts: 1) the sensitivity of the arctic surface radiation balance to uncertainties in cloud properties; 2) the impact of interannual variability in cloud characteristics on surface radiation fluxes and sea ice surface characteristics; and 3) the impact of climate change and the resulting changes in cloud properties on the surface radiation fluxes and sea ice characteristics.With 11 Figures 相似文献
4.
云与辐射的相互作用对全球的天气和气候变化过程有着重要的影响,不同高度的云有着不同的辐射强迫,获得云体高度及其在时空上的变化对研究全球气候的变化有着重要意义。本文利用云卫星上的云廓线雷达(CloudSat/CPR)2006年6月—2007年12月期间的资料,对比分析了青藏高原、高原南坡和南亚季风区域不同云类的云顶、云底高度和云厚统计量。结果表明,在所研究区域单位面积上的云顶和云底高度变化具有一定的时空连续性,不同云类的云顶和云底高度存在不同的变化范围,且随着季节的改变均有明显的变化;同时各区域不同云类的云体厚度在夏季较大,冬季较小;各区域不同云类所占的比例(云量)也具有一定的季节变化规律。 相似文献
5.
Transfer of radiation through cirrus consisting of non-sphericalice crystals randomly oriented in a plane (2D model) is solved by using the discrete-ordinates method. The model is employed to determine the radiative flux properties and the intensity distribution of cirrus for both solar and thermal infrared ra-diation. Comparison of the 2D cloud model with the conventional 3D cloud model, i.e., randomly oriented in a three- dimensional space, shows that the preferential orientation of ice crystals has a substantial effect on the cloud solar albedo. The difference in the cloud albedo computed from the two models can be as large as 8% for a cirrus of 2 km thickness. On the thermal infrared side, although the flux emission for cirrus is less affected by the orientation of ice crystals, the difference in the upward radiance using 2D and 3D models is also significant. 相似文献
6.
Joseph Sedlar Michael Tjernström Thorsten Mauritsen Matthew D. Shupe Ian M. Brooks P. Ola G. Persson Cathryn E. Birch Caroline Leck Anders Sirevaag Marcel Nicolaus 《Climate Dynamics》2011,37(7-8):1643-1660
Snow surface and sea-ice energy budgets were measured near 87.5°N during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), from August to early September 2008. Surface temperature indicated four distinct temperature regimes, characterized by varying cloud, thermodynamic and solar properties. An initial warm, melt-season regime was interrupted by a 3-day cold regime where temperatures dropped from near zero to ?7°C. Subsequently mean energy budget residuals remained small and near zero for 1 week until once again temperatures dropped rapidly and the energy budget residuals became negative. Energy budget transitions were dominated by the net radiative fluxes, largely controlled by the cloudiness. Variable heat, moisture and cloud distributions were associated with changing air-masses. Surface cloud radiative forcing, the net radiative effect of clouds on the surface relative to clear skies, is estimated. Shortwave cloud forcing ranged between ?50 W m?2 and zero and varied significantly with surface albedo, solar zenith angle and cloud liquid water. Longwave cloud forcing was larger and generally ranged between 65 and 85 W m?2, except when the cloud fraction was tenuous or contained little liquid water; thus the net effect of the clouds was to warm the surface. Both cold periods occurred under tenuous, or altogether absent, low-level clouds containing little liquid water, effectively reducing the cloud greenhouse effect. Freeze-up progression was enhanced by a combination of increasing solar zenith angles and surface albedo, while inhibited by a large, positive surface cloud forcing until a new air-mass with considerably less cloudiness advected over the experiment area. 相似文献
7.
A recent modelling study has shown that precipitation and runoff over land would increase when the reflectivity of marine clouds is increased to counter global warming. This implies that large scale albedo enhancement over land could lead to a decrease in runoff over land. In this study, we perform simulations using NCAR CAM3.1 that have implications for Solar Radiation Management geoengineering schemes that increase the albedo over land. We find that an increase in reflectivity over land that mitigates the global mean warming from a doubling of CO2 leads to a large residual warming in the southern hemisphere and cooling in the northern hemisphere since most of the land is located in northern hemisphere. Precipitation and runoff over land decrease by 13.4 and 22.3%, respectively, because of a large residual sinking motion over land triggered by albedo enhancement over land. Soil water content also declines when albedo over land is enhanced. The simulated magnitude of hydrological changes over land are much larger when compared to changes over oceans in the recent marine cloud albedo enhancement study since the radiative forcing over land needed (?8.2?W?m?2) to counter global mean radiative forcing from a doubling of CO2 (3.3?W?m?2) is approximately twice the forcing needed over the oceans (?4.2?W?m?2). Our results imply that albedo enhancement over oceans produce climates closer to the unperturbed climate state than do albedo changes on land when the consequences on land hydrology are considered. Our study also has important implications for any intentional or unintentional large scale changes in land surface albedo such as deforestation/afforestation/reforestation, air pollution, and desert and urban albedo modification. 相似文献
8.
Johannes Quaas Olivier Boucher Jean-Louis Dufresne Hervé Le Treut 《Climate Dynamics》2004,23(7-8):779-789
Among anthropogenic perturbations of the Earths atmosphere, greenhouse gases and aerosols are considered to have a major impact on the energy budget through their impact on radiative fluxes. We use three ensembles of simulations with the LMDZ general circulation model to investigate the radiative impacts of five species of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, CFC-11 and CFC-12) and sulfate aerosols for the period 1930–1989. Since our focus is on the atmospheric changes in clouds and radiation from greenhouse gases and aerosols, we prescribed sea-surface temperatures in these simulations. Besides the direct impact on radiation through the greenhouse effect and scattering of sunlight by aerosols, strong radiative impacts of both perturbations through changes in cloudiness are analysed. The increase in greenhouse gas concentration leads to a reduction of clouds at all atmospheric levels, thus decreasing the total greenhouse effect in the longwave spectrum and increasing absorption of solar radiation by reduction of cloud albedo. Increasing anthropogenic aerosol burden results in a decrease in high-level cloud cover through a cooling of the atmosphere, and an increase in the low-level cloud cover through the second aerosol indirect effect. The trend in low-level cloud lifetime due to aerosols is quantified to 0.5 min day–1 decade–1 for the simulation period. The different changes in high (decrease) and low-level (increase) cloudiness due to the response of cloud processes to aerosols impact shortwave radiation in a contrariwise manner, and the net effect is slightly positive. The total aerosol effect including the aerosol direct and first indirect effects remains strongly negative. 相似文献
9.
Based upon the climate feedback-responses analysis method, a quantitative attribution analysis is conducted for the annual-mean surface temperature biases in the Community Earth System Model version 1 (CESM1). Surface temperature biases are decomposed into partial temperature biases associated with model biases in albedo, water vapor, cloud, sensible/latent heat flux, surface dynamics, and atmospheric dynamics. A globally-averaged cold bias of ?1.22 K in CESM1 is largely attributable to albedo bias that accounts for approximately ?0.80 K. Over land, albedo bias contributes ?1.20 K to the averaged cold bias of ?1.45 K. The cold bias over ocean, on the other hand, results from multiple factors including albedo, cloud, oceanic dynamics, and atmospheric dynamics. Bias in the model representation of oceanic dynamics is the primary cause of cold (warm) biases in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere oceans while surface latent heat flux over oceans always acts to compensate for the overall temperature biases. Albedo bias resulted from the model’s simulation of snow cover and sea ice is the main contributor to temperature biases over high-latitude lands and the Arctic and Antarctic region. Longwave effect of water vapor is responsible for an overall warm (cold) bias in the subtropics (tropics) due to an overestimate (underestimate) of specific humidity in the region. Cloud forcing of temperature biases exhibits large regional variations and the model bias in the simulated ocean mixed layer depth is a key contributor to the partial sea surface temperature biases associated with oceanic dynamics. On a global scale, biases in the model representation of radiative processes account more for surface temperature biases compared to non-radiative, dynamical processes. 相似文献
10.
比较Morcrette辐射方案和Fu_Liou辐射方案对NCC/IAP T63海气耦合模式云和辐射模拟的影响, 结果表明:两种方案模拟的大气顶入射辐射存在明显的差异; 晴空大气Fu_Liou方案的短波吸收能力在全球普遍较Morcrette方案低; 在60°S~60°N之间, Fu_Liou方案模拟的行星反照率更接近于ERBE卫星观测; 在对大气顶净辐射的模拟上, 除了冬季的太平洋和大西洋东岸云量明显减少的部分地区外, Fu_Liou方案对大气顶净辐射的模拟总体上较Morcrette方案有了较为明显的改善; Fu_Liou方案模拟的海洋低层云显著减少, 而热带地区高云的模拟明显增加; 由于采用了“二元云量”算法, 尽管云量有所减少, Fu_Liou方案模拟的云短波吸收作用仍有所增强, 一定程度上改进了Morcrette方案云的短波吸收作用偏弱的现象。 相似文献
11.
Frida A-M. Bender 《Theoretical and Applied Climatology》2011,105(3-4):529-535
In an ensemble of general circulation models, the global mean albedo significantly decreases in response to strong CO2 forcing. In some of the models, the magnitude of this positive feedback is as large as the CO2 forcing itself. The models agree well on the surface contribution to the trend, due to retreating snow and ice cover, but display large differences when it comes to the contribution from shortwave radiative effects of clouds. The ??cloud contribution?? defined as the difference between clear-sky and all-sky albedo anomalies and denoted as ??CC is correlated with equilibrium climate sensitivity in the models (correlation coefficient 0.76), indicating that in high sensitivity models the clouds to a greater extent act to enhance the negative clear-sky albedo trend, whereas in low sensitivity models the clouds rather counteract this trend. As a consequence, the total albedo trend is more negative in more sensitive models (correlation coefficient 0.73). This illustrates in a new way the importance of cloud response to global warming in determining climate sensitivity in models. The cloud contribution to the albedo trend can primarily be ascribed to changes in total cloud fraction, but changes in cloud albedo may also be of importance. 相似文献
12.
G J Boer 《Climate Dynamics》1993,8(5):225-239
The increase in the vigor of the hydrological cycle simulated in a 2 × CO2 experiment with the Canadian Climate Centre general circulation model is smaller than that obtained by other models which have similar increases in mean surface temperature. The surface energy budget, which encompasses also the moisture budget for the oceans, is analyzed. Changes in the net radiative input to and sensible heat flux from the surface act to warm it. This is balanced, at the new equilibrium, by a change in the latent heat flux which acts to cool it. Although this same general behavior is seen in other models, the increase in radiative input to the surface in the CCC GCM is smaller than in other models while the change in the sensible heat flux is of similar size. As a consequence, the latent heat flux required for balance is smaller. The comparatively small increase in the net radiative input at the surface occurs because of a decrease in the solar component. On average the decrease in solar input in the tropical region outweighs the higher latitude increase associated with the snow/ice albedo feedback. The notable tropical decrease in solar input occurs because the albedo of the clouds increase enough in this region to outweigh a small decrease in cloud amount. The increase in cloud albedo in the warmer and moister tropical atmosphere is a consequence of the parameterized cloud optical properties in the model which play an important role in the regulation of the surface energy and moisture budgets. The results demonstrate some of the consequences of the negative feedback mechanism associated with increasing cloud albedo in the model. They also suggest that the simulated change in the vigor of the hydrological cycle is not a simple function of the average increase in surface temperature but is a consequence of all of the processes in the model which control the available energy at the surface as a function of latitude. 相似文献
13.
The albedo of snow for different cloudiness conditions is an important parameter in the Earth's radiation budget analysis and in the study of snowpack's thermal conditions. In this study an efficient approximate method is derived to calculate the incident spectral solar flux and snow-cover albedo in terms of different atmospheric, cloud, and snow parameters. The global flux under partially cloudy skies is expressed in terms of the clear sky flux and a coefficient which models the effect of scattering and absorption by cloud patches and multiple reflections between the cloud base and snowcover. The direct and the diffuse components of the clear sky flux are obtained using the spectral flux outside the atmosphere and the spectral transmission coefficients for absorption and scattering by molecules and aerosols.The spectral snow reflectance model considers both specular surface reflection and volumetric multiple scattering. The surface reflection is calculated by using a crystal-shape-dependent bidirectional reflectance distribution function; the volumetric multiple scattering is calculated by using a crystal-size-dependent approximate solution in the radiative transfer equation. The input parameters to the model are atmospheric precipitable water, ozone content, turbidity, cloud optical thickness, the size and shape of ice crystals of snow and surface pressure. The model yields spectral and integrated solar flux and snow reflectance as a function of solar elevation and fractional cloudcover.The model is illustrated using representative parameters for the Antarctic coastal regions. The albedo for a clear sky depends inversely on the solar elevation. At high elevations the albedo depends primarily upon the grain size; at low elevation the albedo depends on grain size and shape. The gradient of the albedo-elevation curve increases as the grains become larger and faceted. The albedo for a densely overcast sky is a few percent higher than the clear-sky albedo at high elevations. A simple relationship between grain size and the overcast albedo is obtained. For a set of grain size and shape, the albedo as a function of solar elevation and fractional cloud cover is tabulated. 相似文献
14.
Hyunho Lee Jong-Jin Baik Alexander P. Khain 《Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences》2018,54(3):457-471
Using the large-eddy simulation version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a detailed bin microphysics scheme, the effects of turbulence-induced collision enhancement (TICE) on precipitation and cloud radiative properties in shallow cumulus are investigated. Similar to previous studies, the enhanced droplet collision results in an increase in rainwater content and surface precipitation amount. However, under low aerosol number concentration, the relative frequency of large surface precipitation amount is decreased mainly due to the decreased condensation amount. Due to TICE, the mean drop size increases and the drop number concentration decreases, which results in a decrease in evaporation and hence increasing cloud fraction. However, these changes induce a decrease in cloud optical thickness which largely offsets the increased cloud fraction when the domain-averaged albedo is calculated. Similarly, a decrease in cloud top height caused by the decreased in-cloud vertical velocity largely offsets the increased cloud fraction when the domain-averaged outgoing longwave radiation is calculated. Therefore, the effects of TICE on cloud radiative properties in shallow cumulus do not appear prominently. In addition, TICE results in a decrease in the shear production of turbulent kinetic energy, which indicates that TICE acts to produce a negative feedback. 相似文献
15.
ATHANASIOS NENES STEVEN GHAN HAYDER ABDUL&#;RAZZAK PATRICK Y. CHUANG JOHN H. SEINFELD 《Tellus. Series B, Chemical and physical meteorology》2001,53(2):133-149
Under certain conditions mass transfer limitations on the growth of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) may have a significant impact on the number of droplets that can form in a cloud. The assumption that particles remain in equilibrium until activated may therefore not always be appropriate for aerosol populations existing in the atmosphere. This work identifies three mechanisms that lead to kinetic limitations, the effect of which on activated cloud droplet number and cloud albedo is assessed using a one‐dimensional cloud parcel model with detailed microphysics for a variety of aerosol size distributions and updraft velocities. In assessing the effect of kinetic limitations, we have assumed as cloud droplets not only those that are strictly activated (as dictated by classical Köhler theory), but also unactivated drops large enough to have an impact on cloud optical properties. Aerosol number concentration is found to be the key parameter that controls the significance of kinetic effects. Simulations indicate that the equilibrium assumption leads to an overprediction of droplet number by less than 10% for marine aerosol; this overprediction can exceed 40% for urban type aerosol. Overall, the effect of kinetic limitations on cloud albedo can be considered important when equilibrium activation theory consistently overpredicts droplet number by more than 10%. The maximum change in cloud albedo as a result of kinetic limitations is less than 0.005 for cases such as marine aerosol; however albedo differences can exceed 0.1 under more polluted conditions. Kinetic limitations are thus not expected to be climatically significant on a global scale, but can regionally have a large impact on cloud albedo. 相似文献
16.
Coupling between subtropical cloud feedback and the local hydrological cycle in a climate model 总被引：2，自引：1，他引：1
In HadGEM2-A, AMIP experiments forced with observed sea surface temperatures respond to uniform and patterned +4 K SST perturbations with strong positive cloud feedbacks in the subtropical stratocumulus/trade cumulus transition regions. Over the subtropical Northeast Pacific at 137°W/26°N, the boundary layer cloud fraction reduces considerably in the AMIP +4 K patterned SST experiment. The near-surface wind speed and the air-sea temperature difference reduces, while the near-surface relative humidity increases. These changes limit the local increase in surface evaporation to just 3 W/m2 or 0.6 %/K. Previous studies have suggested that increases in surface evaporation may be required to maintain maritime boundary layer cloud in a warmer climate. This suggests that the supply of water vapour from surface evaporation may not be increasing enough to maintain the low level cloud fraction in the warmer climate in HadGEM2-A. Sensitivity tests which force the surface evaporation to increase substantially in the +4 K patterned SST experiment result in smaller changes in boundary layer cloud and a weaker cloud feedback in HadGEM2-A, supporting this idea. Although global mean surface evaporation in climate models increases robustly with global temperature (and the resulting increase in atmospheric radiative cooling), local values may increase much less, having a significant impact on cloud feedback. These results suggest a coupling between cloud feedback and the hydrological cycle via changes in the patterns of surface evaporation. A better understanding of both the factors controlling local changes in surface evaporation and the sensitivity of clouds to such changes may be required to understand the reasons for inter-model differences in subtropical cloud feedback. 相似文献
17.
The surface energy budget components from two simulations of the regional climate model RegCM4.2 over the European/North African domain during the period 1989–2005 are analysed. The simulations differ in specified boundary forcings which were obtained from ERA-Interim reanalysis and the HadGEM2-ES Earth system model. Surface radiative and turbulent fluxes are compared against ERA-Interim. Errors in surface radiative fluxes are derived with respect to the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment/Surface Radiation Budget satellite-based products. In both space and time, we find a high degree of realism in the RegCM surface energy budget components, but some substantial errors and differences between the two simulations are also present. The most prominent error is an overestimation of the net surface shortwave radiation flux of more than 50 W/m2 over central and southeastern Europe during summer months. This error strongly correlates with errors in the representation of total cloud cover, and less strongly with errors in surface albedo. During other seasons, the amplitude of the surface energy budget components is more in line with reference datasets. The errors may limit the usefulness of RegCM simulations in applications (e.g. high-quality simulation-driven impact studies). However, by using a simple diagnostic model for error interpretation, we suggest potential sensitivity studies aiming to reduce the underestimation of cloud cover and overestimation of shortwave radiation flux. 相似文献
18.
云层分布对辐射增效和冷却的影响 总被引：8，自引：0，他引：8
本文计算了冬、夏两季在平原和高原地区分别有低云、高云和当高、低云同时出现时的短波辐射增热率,长波辐射冷却率以及高低云之间的相互影响。结果发现:1)高原上云的短波增热率和长波冷却率要比平原上的大,低云的增热和冷却较平原尤甚。2)高云存在时,地面附近由冷却变为增热。3)高原地区出现双层云时总是使地面附近增热。4)当两层云同时出现时,高云的短波增热率和长波冷却率都有所增大,低云的短波增热率减小,低云的长波冷却率则减小很多。5)低云量的变化对高云的冷却影响较小,而高云量变化对低云的冷却影响甚大。6)云的短波辐射增热受地面反照率的影响不很大,但对太阳高度角的变化甚为敏感。 由以上结果看来,在大气环流和气候模式中必须要很好地考虑高云云量的变化,否则难以得到好的结果。在区域气候模式中不可忽略高原地区和平原地区云的辐射增热和冷却作用的差别。 相似文献
19.
一维辐射-对流模式对云辐射强迫的数值模拟研究 总被引：10，自引：9，他引：1
利用一维辐射－对流气候模式, 详细研究了云量、云光学厚度以及云高等要素的变化对大气顶和地面太阳短波辐射和红外长波辐射通量以及云的辐射强迫的影响, 给出了计算这些物理量的经验拟合公式。结果表明, 云具有极为重要的辐射－气候效应。云量、云光学厚度以及云高即使只有百分之几的变化, 所带来的辐射强迫也可以与大气二氧化碳浓度加倍所产生的辐射强迫（3.75 W/m2）相比拟。例如, 当分别给它们+3%的扰动时, 即取云量变化0.015, 云光学厚度变化0.27, 以及云高变化0.15 km时（在实际的地球大气中, 这种尺度的变化是完全可能发生的）, 那么,可以得到地气系统的太阳短波辐射强迫-3.10 W/m2以及红外长波辐射强迫-1.77 W/m2, 二者之和为-4.78 W/m2, 已经完全可以抵消大气二氧化碳浓度加倍所产生的辐射强迫。但是, 当云量、云光学厚度以及云高向相反方向产生类似扰动时, 所产生的辐射强迫可能极大地放大二氧化碳浓度增加所产生的增强温室效应。因此, 研究结果揭示出, 不管是为了解释过去的气候变化, 还是预测未来的气候变化, 亟待加强在一个变化了的气候环境（例如地面温度升高）下, 云将发生何种变化的研究。 相似文献
20.
Black carbon aerosols absorb solar radiation and decrease planetary albedo, and thus can contribute to climate warming. In this paper, the dependence of equilibrium climate response on the altitude of black carbon is explored using an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to a mixed layer ocean model. The simulations model aerosol direct and semi-direct effects, but not indirect effects. Aerosol concentrations are prescribed and not interactive. It is shown that climate response of black carbon is highly dependent on the altitude of the aerosol. As the altitude of black carbon increases, surface temperatures decrease; black carbon near the surface causes surface warming, whereas black carbon near the tropopause and in the stratosphere causes surface cooling. This cooling occurs despite increasing planetary absorption of sunlight (i.e. decreasing planetary albedo). We find that the trend in surface air temperature response versus the altitude of black carbon is consistent with our calculations of radiative forcing after the troposphere, stratosphere, and land surface have undergone rapid adjustment, calculated as “regressed” radiative forcing. The variation in climate response from black carbon at different altitudes occurs largely from different fast climate responses; temperature dependent feedbacks are not statistically distinguishable. Impacts of black carbon at various altitudes on the hydrological cycle are also discussed; black carbon in the lowest atmospheric layer increases precipitation despite reductions in solar radiation reaching the surface, whereas black carbon at higher altitudes decreases precipitation. 相似文献