Climate Effects of Anthropogenic Aerosol Forcing on Tropical Precipitation and Circulations

Abstract

ABSTRACTAerosols are one of the key factors influencing the hydrological cycle and radiation balance of the climate system. Although most aerosols deposit near their sources, the induced cooling effect is on a global scale and can influence the tropical atmosphere through slow processes, such as air?sea interactions. This study analyzes several simulations of fully coupled atmosphere?ocean climate models under the influence of anthropogenic aerosols, with the concentrations of greenhouse gases kept constant. In the cooling simulations, precipitation is reduced in deep convective areas but increased around the edges of convective areas, which is opposite to the ?rich-get-richer? phenomenon in global warming scenarios in the first-order approximation. Tropical convection is intensified with a shallower depth, and tropical circulations are enhanced. The anomalous gross moist stability (M?) mechanism and the upped-ante mechanism can be used to explain the dynamic and thermodynamic processes in the changes in tropical precipitation and convection. There is a northward cross-equatorial energy transport due to the cooler Northern Hemisphere in most of the simulations, together with the southward shift of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and the enhancement of the Hadley circulation. The enhancement of the Hadley circulation is more consistent between models than the changes of the Walker circulation. The change in the Hadley circulation is not as negligible as in the warming cases in previous studies, which supports the consistency of the ITCZ shift in cooling simulations.