GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L06109, doi:10.1029/2003GL019287, 2004

Impact of aerosols and atmospheric thermodynamics on cloudproperties within the climate system
Toshihisa Matsui, Hirohiko Masunaga, and Roger A. Pielke Sr.
Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado, USA

Wei-Kuo Tao
Laboratory for Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Received 15 December 2003; revised 27 January 2004; accepted 19 February 2004; published 18 March 2004.

[1] A combination of cloud-top and columnar droplet sizes
derived from the multi Tropical Rainfall Measurement
Mission (TRMM) sensors reveals the sensitivity of theaerosols effect on cloud-precipitation processes due toenvironmental vertical thermodynamic structure. First, themagnitude of aerosol indirect effect could be larger withthe analysis of columnar droplet sizes than that derived fromthe cloud-top droplet sizes since column-droplet size canaccount for the broader droplet spectra in the cloud layers.
Second, a combination of cloud-top and columnar droplet
sizes reveals that the warm rain process is prevented
regardless of the aerosols concentration under high static
stability such as when a strong temperature inversion exists,
while a high aerosol concentration suppresses the warm rain
INDEX TERMS:
formulation under low static stability.
0305 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Aerosols andparticles (0345, 4801); 0320 Atmospheric Composition and
Structure: Cloud physics and chemistry; 1610 Global Change:
Atmosphere (0315, 0325); 1640 Global Change: Remote sensing.
Citation: Matsui, T., H. Masunaga, R. A. Pielke Sr., and W.-K.
Tao (2004), Impact of aerosols and atmospheric thermodynamics
on cloud properties within the climate system, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
31, L06109, doi:10.1029/2003GL019287.

1. Introduction[2] Maritime low clouds, denoted hereafter as stratus,
reduce the Earth’s energy budget by approximately 15 (W/m2) in an annual average through an imbalance between the
longwave emission and the reflection of solar radiation[Hartmann et al., 1992]. This large impact of stratus to the
Earth’s radiation budget has motivated studies to examine
the factors governing the microphysical properties of stratus.
[3] Stratus amount is, in particular, positively correlatedwith lower-tropospheric static stability (LTSS), defined as
the potential temperature difference between the surface
and the 700 (mb) pressure level [Klein and Hartmann,
1993]. Klein and Hartmann [1993] demonstrate that high
LTSS represents a strong temperature inversion at the topof the atmospheric boundary layer, and the regional observations show that the stratus cloud is confined to theboundary layer in high LTSS, while extending their horizontal areal coverage.
[4] Aerosols also control stratus properties by acting as
cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) to form cloud droplets. A
Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.
0094-8276/04/2003GL019287$05.00

high concentration of the aerosols overseed cloud dropletsto generate highly concentrated, narrowly distributed cloud
droplet spectra, which increase the cloud albedo up to 30%[Twomey et al., 1984]. Narrowly distributed cloud droplet
spectra prevent the formulation of precipitation and could
increase the cloud lifetime that further cools the Earth’s
surface [Albrecht, 1989]. This climatic impact of aerosols
on cloud properties is called the aerosol indirect effect,
which is one of the largest uncertainties in accurately
describing the sensitivity of climate to changes in aerosol
concentrations in the future.
[5] Figure 1 exhibits a global distribution of seasonallyaveraged LTSS (color contours) derived from the NCEP/
NCAR Reanalysis [Kalnay et al., 1996] and seasonallyaveraged aerosol index derived from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) (dark shaded)[Tanré et al., 1997]. The aerosol index is better correlated
than aerosol optical depths with the column aerosol concentrations under some assumptions [Nakajima et al.,2001], and was derived from the aerosol optical thickness
at 0.55 (mm) and Ångstrom exponent computed from 0.55
and 0.865 (mm). Different contributions from these two
factors across the globe possibly influence the cloud microstructure. This paper examines the sensitivity of the aerosol
effect to the cloud properties on a global scale due to thebackground atmospheric thermodynamic structure.

2. TRMM-Derived Cloud Properties[6] A new algorithm using the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) and
Visible/Infrared Radiance Imager (VIRS) provides the vertical structure of warm cloud (cloud top temperature >273 K)
microstructure by investigating two types of droplet effective radius (Re): shortwave-derived droplet size (Re (top))
and microwave-derived droplet size (Re (column)). This isbecause a VIRS-derived Re tends to be biased toward a
cloud-top value due to strong absorption of the near-infraredband, whereas a TMI-derived Re is expected to be close to
the value averaged over the cloud layer since microwave candetect cloud droplets and rain drops without suffering fromsaturation within low maritime clouds. Partial cloudiness in alarge TMI footprint is corrected by VIRS-derived cloud
fraction [Masunaga et al., 2002a].
[7] Figure 2 shows the relationship between seasonallyaveraged (March – May) Re (top) and Re (column) at eachgrid between 37N and 37S. Re (top) generally ranges
from 10 to 21 (mm), whereas Re (column) broadly ranges up

L061091 of 4

L06109

MATSUI ET AL.: SENSITIVITY OF AEROSOL INDIRECT EFFECT

L06109Figure 1. Global distribution of aerosol index (dark shaded) from the MODIS measurements and lower-tropospheric static
stability (LTSS) (K) (colored contour) derived from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis averaged through March – May 2000.
to 40 (mm). Re (top) is generally larger than that derived
from the Bréon et al. [2002], since optically thin, broken
clouds (less than 30% of TMI footprint) were omitted
from our analysis in order to reduce the error associatedwith the surface emissivity in microwave analysis.
Figure 2 can be used to judge different cloud modes
due to the fact that clouds are likely to exhibit significant
droplet growth when Re exceeds 15 (mm) [see Masunaga
et al., 2002b, and references therein]. A cloud with both
Re (top) and Re (column) < 15 (mm) in the zone-I is
assigned as non-precipitating, since the cloud is not
drizzling with Re (column) < Re (top); i.e., cloud droplet
sizes increase toward the cloud top. Clouds with Re(top) > 15 (mm) and Re (column) < 15 (mm) in thezone-II are assigned as transitional, since the droplets
increase in size toward the cloud top where drizzle drops
have begun to form. Clouds with Re (top) > 15 (mm)and Re (column) > 15 (mm) in the zone-III are assigned
as precipitating, since the cloud is drizzling with Re(column) > Re (top); i.e., droplet sizes increase toward
the cloud base, indicating the presence of larger precipitation-size droplets in that area. In a small number ofclouds, Re (column) is greater than the Re (top), although
Re (top) does not exceed the drizzle threshold. Clouds inzone-IV are assigned as uncertain.
[8] Figure 3a shows a global map of four cloud modes
by overlaying the global distribution of Re (column) andRe (top) with a color coordination to represent the degreeof the cloud mode (Figure 3b). Non-precipitating stratus(red) exists downwind of continents. Those regions are
generally characterized with polluted (a high aerosol
index) and/or stable atmosphere (high LTSS) (Figure 1).
The stratus in the rest of the subtropical regions characterized with relatively polluted and moderately stable
atmosphere is in the transitional mode (green). Transitional
stratus is also found in the Inter Tropical Convergence
Zone and the Pacific Warm Pool where deep cumulus
convection (cold-rain process) promotes a subsidence inthe surrounding warm clouds.
[9] Precipitating stratus (blue) is found in the outerfringes of the tropical rain area. These regions, comparedto the regions with non-precipitating stratus, are generally
characterized with pristine and/or less stable atmosphere(Figure 1). The areas with precipitating clouds correspondto the warm rain regions observed by the TRMM Precipitation Radar [Schumacher and Houze, 2003]. Uncertain
stratus (black) is present in a small portion of the northIndian Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

3. Sensitivity of the Aerosol Indirect Effect3.1. Method[10] Since it is difficult to quantify the relationship fromthe seasonal mean values, we performed a statistical analysis for the individual estimates of stratus, aerosol index,
and LTSS. The three individual datasets are not precisely
concurrent in time and space. We directly relate the daily
1-degree MODIS aerosol index, 0.25-degree TRMM cloudproperties, and 2.5-degree LTSS from the NCEP/NCAR
reanalysis without spatial interpolation. The maximum
difference in overpass timing between the TRMM and the
MODIS is set to be 3 hours, minimizing the error associatedwith the different satellite overpasses. The LTSS from the
NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis is linearly interpolated for the
TRMM overpass timing. The total sampling number ofthe quasi-coincident observations was 462,289; 287,007of the total were observed in the subtropical region (25–37N and 25 – 37S), while 170,304 of the total wereobserved in the tropical region (25S – 25N).
3.2. Results[11] The means of Re (top) and Re (column) were derived
with a given aerosol index (bins of 0.02) and LTSS (bins of
0.4 K) (Figure 4). The three-dimensional slope shows thathigh aerosol index and/or high LTSS leads to the smaller
droplet size in both Re (column) and Re (top); i.e., a larger
temperature inversion and higher concentrations of aerosols
inhibit cloud droplet growth. On the other hand, cloud

Figure 2. Seasonally averaged Re (top) and Re (column)
at each grid box are compared. Dash lines represent
15-micron drizzle threshold. Solid line shows the 1:1 ratio
between Re (top) and Re (Column). Re (column) is greaterthan the Re (top) when clouds are located above the solidline.

2 of 4

L06109

MATSUI ET AL.: SENSITIVITY OF AEROSOL INDIRECT EFFECT

L06109Figure 3. a) Global distribution of non-precipitating (red), transitional (green) and precipitating (blue) modes of warm
cloud averaged through March – May 2000. b) Color coordination based on the warm cloud modes.

droplet sizes are maximized in the pristine and less stable
atmosphere.
[12] For a fixed liquid water path, the relationshipbetween Re and aerosol index is expressed as [e.g., Bréon
et al., 2002]
d logðReÞ a¼ ;d logð AI Þ 3

ð1Þ

where AI is aerosol index, and a approximately relates theaerosol index to the number of cloud droplets (Nc) via Nc (AI)a. The slope (a/3) is a parameter that simply quantifies
the magnitude ofpthe
aerosol indirect effect. Since theﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃﬃ
standard errors (s/ n  2, where n and s are the number ofquasi-coincident measurements for each bin and is standard
deviation, respectively) are generally larger for the bins ofhigher aerosol index due to the lack of the sample number,
we derived the slope for an aerosol index >0.25. Although
our sampling and statistical processes are different from theprevious studies in a strict manner, the slope of Re (top)averaged over a full range of LTSS (0.069) is close to thatderived from Bréon et al. [2002] (0.085) and less than 50%of that derived from Nakajima et al. [2001] (0.16). The
slope of Re (column) is 0.222, which is three times larger
than that of Re (top), and is close to that using acharacteristic value, a = 0.7 [Charlson et al., 1992]. Since
the Re (column) is directly related to the cloud optical depth[Masunaga et al., 2002a], the aerosol indirect effect andassociated Earth’s cooling effect could be greater than theestimation using cloud-top Re (0.7– 0.2 W/m2) [Nakajima
et al., 2001].
[13] The slopes of Re (column) averaged over the fivebins of LTSS range from 0.12 to 0.32 (Table 1). In the same
LTSS intervals, the slope of Re (top) range from 0.022 to
0.071. Those contain values derived over land and ocean[Bréon et al., 2002], suggesting that the difference in theslope between land and ocean could be explained by theirbackground thermodynamic structure, in addition to theobservational tendency of the specific sensor [Rosenfeld
and Feingold, 2003]. Except for the lowest LTSS intervals(12.2– 13.8), the slope of Re (column) and Re (top) generally decreases toward the higher LTSS (Table 1); i.e., agreater fraction of aerosols are converted into cloud dropletsin the lower LTSS. This result is also physically reasonable,
since a lower static stability permits a deeper atmosphericboundary layer and stronger updrafts to yield a higher
supersaturation, which activate more CCNs thereby
decreasing the droplet size [Feingold et al., 2003]. However, the aerosol effect on the cloud albedo and associatedEarth’s radiation budget is not necessarily stronger inthe convectively unstable atmosphere, since cloud areal
coverage becomes very small in such regions [Klein andHartmann, 1993]. The different slopes due to the LTSS also
explain why the mean slope of Re (top) is smaller than
Nakajima et al. [2001]; our sampling number is biased

Figure 4. The mean of Re (top) and Re (column) were derived for sets with a given aerosol index (bins of 0.01) and lowatmosphere static stability (bins of 0.4 K) from May to March.
3 of 4

MATSUI ET AL.: SENSITIVITY OF AEROSOL INDIRECT EFFECT

L06109

Table 1. The Slope (a/3) Averaged Over the Five Bins of the
LTSS

(a/3)

Ranges of
LTSS (K)Re (top)Re (column)

12.2 – 13.8 14.2 – 15.8 16.2 – 17.8 18.2 – 19.8 20.2 – 21.8
0.071
0.19

0.085
0.32

0.084
0.27

0.051
0.20

0.022
0.12

toward the subtropical regions, where the LTSS is generally
higher than the tropical region.
[14] Finally, Figure 5 provides the distribution of thecloud modes as functions of the aerosol index and the LTSS
with the color coordination in Figure 3b. Precipitating
stratus (blue) exists when the aerosol index and LTSS areless than approximately 0.08 and 16.8, respectively. Notethat the absence of dark blue, which dominates the tropicalregion in Figure 3, is due to the sampling biases mentioned
above. Therefore, Figure 5 should be considered to mainly
represent cloud-aerosol interaction in the subtropical region.
Non-precipitating stratus (red) exists with a high aerosol
index (0.24). Transitional stratus (green) lies between the
non-precipitating and precipitating stratus. The boundariesof three cloud modes are tilted toward the higher LTSS.
Figure 5 clearly shows that a high aerosol concentration
suppresses the cloud droplet growth and warm rain process
under low static stability; nevertheless, the warm rain
process is prevented regardless of aerosol concentration
under a high static stability where a strong temperature
inversion exists.

4. Summary and Perspectives[15] Our study demonstrates an important sensitivity of
the aerosol effect on the cloud-precipitation process to thedifferent static stability regimes through a simultaneous
examination of the cloud-top and columnar droplet effective
radius. While the magnitude of its effect of cloud-top values
reproduces the value reported in the previous studies, thoseof columnar values are greater than the previous studies,suggesting a possible underestimation of the aerosol indirect
effect with using cloud-top droplet size. The cloud-aerosolinteraction is clearly identified except where LTSS is sohigh that the cloud droplet growth is dynamically suppressed. A further analysis is required for a more quantita-

L06109tive assessment. This study does not account for the vertical
distribution of the aerosol concentration. A possible solution
is to combine the aerosol dataset from MODIS and a global
chemical transport model to distinguish the aerosols above
the warm cloud, such as the dust aerosols from the Gobi and
Sahara desert [Ginoux et al., 2001]. Indeed, multi-seasonaland multi-year datasets will provide a sufficient sampling
number to derive a statistically significant relationship in
the specific regions where the chemical compositions ofaerosols strongly differ.
[16] Acknowledgments. This work is funded by NASA CEAS
fellowship No. NAG5-12105, and NASA Grant No. NNG04GB87G.
Wei-Kuo Tao is supported by the NASA Headquarters Atmospheric
Dynamics and Thermodynamics Program and the NASA Tropical Rainfall
Measuring Mission (TRMM). VIRS (1B01) and TMI (1B11) data were
provided by NASA GSFC DAAC. NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis were provided
by the NOAA CDC. The authors would like to thank Allen Chu at NASA/
GSFC for providing the MODIS aerosol data and T. Y. Nakajima at
NASDA/EORC for providing the GTR 4.1 packages. We also thank Dallas
Staley for her professional editing.

References
Albrecht, B. A. (1989), Aerosols, cloud microphysics, and fractional cloudiness, Science, 245, 1227 – 1230.
Bréon, F.-M., D. Tanré, and S. Generoso (2002), Aerosol effect on cloud
droplet size monitored from satellite, Science, 295, 834 – 838.
Charlson, R. J., S. E. Schwartz, J. M. Hales, R. D. Cess, J. A. Coakley Jr.,J. E. Hansen, and D. J. Hofmann (1992), Climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols, Science, 255, 423 – 430.
Feingold, G., W. L. Eberhard, D. E. Veron, and M. Previdi (2003), First
measurements of the Twomey indirect effect using ground-based remotesensors, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(6), 1287, doi:10.1029/2002GL016633.
Ginoux, P., M. Chin, I. Tegen, J. Prospero, B. Holben, O. Dubovik, and
S.-J. Lin (2001), Sources and global distributions of dust aerosols simulated with the GOCART model, J. Geophys. Res., 106, 20,255 – 20,273.
Hartmann, D. L., M. E. Ockert-Bell, and M. L. Michelsen (1992), The
effect of cloud type on Earth’s energy balance: Global analysis, J. Clim.,
5, 1281 – 1304.
Kalnay, E., et al. (1996), The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project, Bull.
Am. Meteorol. Soc., 77, 437 – 471.
Klein, S. A., and D. L. Hartmann (1993), The seasonal cycle of low stratiform clouds, J. Clim., 6, 1587 – 1606.
Masunaga, H., T. Y. Nakajima, T. Nakajima, M. Kachi, R. Oki, andS. Kuroda (2002a), Physical properties of maritime low clouds as
retrieved by combined use of Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission
Microwave Imager and Visible/Infrared Scanner: Algorithm, J. Geophys.
Res., 107(D10), 4083, doi:10.1029/2001JD000743.
Masunaga, H., T. Y. Nakajima, T. Nakajima, M. Kachi, and K. Suzuki(2002b), Physical properties of maritime low clouds as retrieved by
combined use of Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM)
Microwave Imager and Visible/Infrared Scanner: 2. Climatology of warm
clouds and rain, J. Geophys. Res., 107(D19), 4367, doi:10.1029/
2001JD001269.
Nakajima, T., A. Higurashi, K. Kawamoto, and J. E. Penner (2001), A
possible correlation between satellite-derived cloud and aerosol microphysical parameters, Geophys. Res. Lett., 28, 1171 – 1174.
Rosenfeld, D., and G. Feingold (2003), Explanation of discrepancies among
satellite observations of the aerosol indirect effect, Geophys. Res. Lett.,
30(14), 1776, doi:10.1029/2003GL017684.
Schumacher, C., and R. A. Houze Jr. (2003), The TRMM precipitation radar’s view of shallow, isolated rain, J. Appl. Meteorol., 42,
1519 – 1524.
Tanré, D., Y. J. Kaufman, M. Herman, and S. Mattoo (1997), Remotesensing of aerosol properties over oceans using the MODIS/EOS spectral
radiance, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 16,971 – 16,988.
Twomey, S. A., M. Piepgrass, and T. L. Wolfe (1984), An assessment of
the impact of pollution on global cloud albedo, Tellus, Ser. B, 36,
356 – 366.


Figure 5. Re (column) and Re (top) are overlaid andcolored based on the Figure 3b.

T. Matsui, H. Masunaga, and R. A. Pielke Sr., Department ofAtmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, CO 805231371, USA. (matsuit@atmos.colostate.edu)
W.-K. Tao, Laboratory for Atmospheres, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.

4 of 4