Direct and semi-direct impacts of absorbing biomass burning aerosol on the climate of southern Africa: a geophysical fluid dynamics laboratory GCM sensitivity study.
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Abstract
Abstract. Tropospheric aerosols emitted from biomass burning reduce solar radiation at the surface and locally heat the atmosphere. Equilibrium simulations using an atmospheric general circulation model (GFDL AGCM) indicate that strong atmospheric absorption from these particles can cool the surface and increase upward motion and low-level convergence over southern Africa during the dry season. These changes increase sea level pressure over land in the biomass burning region and spin-up the hydrologic cycle by increasing clouds, atmospheric water vapor, and, to a lesser extent, precipitation. Cloud increases serve to reinforce the surface radiative cooling tendency of the aerosol. Conversely, if the climate over southern Africa were hypothetically forced by high loadings of scattering aerosol, then the change in the low-level circulation and increased subsidence would serve to decrease clouds, precipitation, and atmospheric water vapor. Surface cooling associated with scattering-only aerosols is mitigated by warming from cloud decreases. The direct and semi-direct climate impacts of biomass burning aerosol over southern Africa are sensitive to the total amount of aerosol absorption and how clouds change in response to the aerosol-induced heating of the atmosphere.
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Because of the large spatial extent of shortwave-absorbing aerosols, they are capable of influencing the interhemispheric energy balance, the location of the ITCZ, and regional precipitation patterns.
“Because of the large spatial extent of the shortwave-absorbing aerosols, they are capable of influencing the interhemispheric energy balance, the location of the ITCZ, and regional precipitation patterns (Jones et al., 2009;Randles and Ramaswamy, 2010;Sakaeda et al., 2011).”
From The tropical atlantic observing system (2019) · cites this paper as Randles and Ramaswamy, 2010
The Results section (page not provided) reports that absorbing biomass-burning aerosols alter circulation and increase precipitation over parts of southern Africa, supporting the regional-precipitation part of the claim. The paper does not establish effects on the interhemispheric energy balance or the location of the ITCZ; searches for those terms found no relevant passage. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Research works printed but not linked: 27
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The tropical atlantic observing system
Foltz, G. R., Brandt, P., Richter, I., Rodríguez-Fonseca, B., Hernandez, F., Dengler, M., Rodrigues, R. R., Schmidt, J. O., Yu, L., Lefevre, N., et al. (2019) · Frontiers in Marine Science · doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00206 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
- Authors
- Randles, C. A., & Ramaswamy, V.
- Affiliations
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (US)
- Venue
- Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2010-10-19
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 20
- Pages
- 9819-9831
- ISSN
- 1680-7316 (ISSN-L)
- 1680-7324
- OpenAlex
- W2095651295
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 7 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 3.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Atmospheric chemistry and physics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric aerosols and clouds
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Climate variability and models
- Keywords
- biomass burning aerosols, aerosol absorption, cloud feedback, water cycle, precipitation, atmospheric water vapor, low-level convergence, subsidence, sea level pressure, aerosol light scattering
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