Aerosol transport and wet scavenging in deep convective clouds: a case study and model evaluation using a multiple passive tracer analysis approach

August 20, 2015

Journal Article

Aerosol transport and wet scavenging in deep convective clouds: a case study and model evaluation using a multiple passive tracer analysis approach

Abstract

The effect of wet scavenging on ambient aerosols in deep, continental convective clouds in the mid-latitudes is studied for a severe storm case in Oklahoma during the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) field campaign. A new passive-tracer based transport analysis framework is developed to characterize the convective transport based on the vertical distribution of several slowly reacting and nearly insoluble trace gases. The passive gas concentration in the upper troposphere convective outflow results from a mixture of 47% from the lower level (0-3 km), 21% entrained from the upper troposphere, and 32% from mid-atmosphere based on observations. The transport analysis framework is applied to aerosols to estimate aerosol transport and wet-scavenging efficiency. Observations yield high overall scavenging efficiencies of 81% and 68% for aerosol mass (Dp

Revised: December 29, 2015 | Published: August 20, 2015

Citation

Yang Q., R.C. Easter, P. Campuzano-Jost, J.L. Jimenez, J.D. Fast, S.J. Ghan, and H. Wang, et al. 2015. Aerosol transport and wet scavenging in deep convective clouds: a case study and model evaluation using a multiple passive tracer analysis approach. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 120, no. 16:8448-8468. PNNL-SA-109663. doi:10.1002/2015JD023647