Modeling of the Influence of Saharan Dust and Other Aerosols on Hurricane Earl (2010) Using NASA Unified WRF (NUWRF)

This presentation will show the results from simulations of Hurricane Earl (2010) that interacted with the SAL (Saharan Air Layer), during the stage that it intensified from a tropical depression into a Cat-3 hurricane. Our focus will be on how the dust and other aerosols impact the track and intensification of Earl. Given the complexity of aerosol effects on cloud microphysics and radiation and their subsequent effects on deep convective clouds, there is a need to assess the combined aerosol effects of microphysics and radiation. We will use the Goddard Space Flight Center version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with interactive aerosol-cloud-radiation physics to study the influence of the Saharan dust and other aerosols (sea salt and black/organic carbon) on Earl via a series of model sensitivity runs. The impacts of Saharan dust and other aerosols are evaluated by looking at the differences between the control (no aerosol) and the simulations with aerosols.