资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Aerosol-cloud interactions remain a major source of uncertainty in our understanding and modeling of the Earth's hydrological cycle. Based upon a diagnostic and modeling analysis utilizing the latest field measurements from the Integrative Monsoon Frontal Rainfall Experiment (IMFRE) 2018, this paper reports the effects of aerosols on the cloud properties along the Mei-yu front over the Middle Reaches of Yangtze River in China. Numerical experiments with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model suggest that increasing aerosol number concentration reduces surface precipitation by similar to 8.8% and delays the onset of rainfall by similar to 30 min. Furthermore, warm clouds are suppressed but the convective cores are slightly intensified. This corresponds to an overall aerosol effect of "localization and invigoration" of the Mei-yu rainfall and thus an elevated probability of short-term heavy rainfall. The signals of "convective invigoration" with a bulk scheme in this study are relatively weak compared to those simulated by bin microphysics. The increased aerosol concentration strengthens Mei-yu front and changes local morphology of the front, consistent with earlier studies demonstrating positive effects of convective heating on the genesis and maintenance of Mei-yu front via conditional instability of the second kind (CISK) and diabatic generation of potential vorticity. Also discussed are the uncertainties of bulk microphysics in simulating aerosol-cloud interactions, which may shed light on the design of future field campaigns to further understand the impact of aerosol-cloud interactions on weather and climate over China in boreal summer.