Potential aerosol impacts on deep convection including severe local storms and tropical cyclones (Invited Presentation)

The concepts of how aerosols affect storms, including anthropogenic pollution aerosols and dust, are discussed. Based upon the results of numerous simulations of individual convective storms, storms organized on the mesoscale, and tropical cyclones(TCs), we then discuss the potential impacts of aerosols on convective precipitation, hail storms, tornado genesis, and on the intensity of tropical cyclones. The simulations suggest that the response of clouds to high concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and ice nuclei (IN) strongly depends on environmental conditions such as low level moisture amounts, stability, and wind shear. In the case of tropical cyclones it is also dependent on the parts of the storm into which the high aerosol concentrations are introduced. Moreover, the response is by no means monotonic with increasing concentrations of CCN both for individual storms and tropical cyclones.