Contribution of Aerosol Effects to Convective Intensity and Extreme Precipitation

Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) and aerosol-radiation interactions (ARI) could impact extreme weather through changing cloud microphysics and radiation. Combining observations with high-resolution simulations at convection-permitting scale, I will illustrate how heavy aerosol pollution can escalate an ordinary convective event to a catastrophic flood event through ARI over the southwest of China. Over Amazon, with the recent unique field data and spectral-bin model simulations at cloud-resolving scale, we reveal substantial convective updraft and precipitation enhancements by small aerosol particles from Manaus urban plume through ACI, via a new mechanism of “warm-phase invigoration”. The importance of appropriately considering aerosols effects in simulating and predicting extreme weather will be discussed.