Interactions between aerosols and clouds

A number of studies have suggested that anthropogenic increases in aerosol production will alter the earth's climate. The change is due not only to the direct effect of the aerosols on the earth's radiation budget, but also to the indirect effects of aerosols on clouds. During the past few years we have been systematically examining the relations between changes in aerosol abundance and cloud properties with the goal of quantifying these interactions. Findings indicate that not all types of clouds respond in the same manner to changes in aerosol concentrations and that some hypotheses may be incorrect. By coupling a radiative transfer model to a microphysical cloud model and developing a one-dimensional turbulent transport model to represent boundary-layer dynamical processes, different cloud type responses can be simulated. The sensitivity of marine stratus, cirrus, and continental stratus cloud types are discussed