The Impact of Radiation Absorbing Aerosols on the Intensity and Organization of Several Mesoscale Regimes (Invited Presentation)

Variations in the vertical and horizontal distribution of radiation absorbing aerosols can have a significant impact on cloud-scale to mesoscale circulations through their impacts on aspects such as horizontal temperature gradients, environmental static stability and the altitudes of new cloud formation. Numerous processes including large-scale synoptic lofting and transport, lifting along mesoscale boundaries such as cold pools, and the detrainment and evaporation of hydrometeors from deep convective systems can generate such three-dimensional variations in radiation absorbing aerosols. This talk will focus on several mesoscale regimes impacted by the presence of radiation absorbing aerosols including sea breeze circulations, shallow continental convection, isolated deep convection, and tropical cyclones. Using a series of high-resolution numerical model simulations, the aerosol-radiation processes responsible for the changes in the intensity and organization of these mesoscale regimes will be analyzed and discussed. The need to include the radiation absorbing characteristics of aerosols within numerical simulations will be assessed.