PNNL

Abstract

The majority of previous studies dealing with effect of coarse-mode aerosols on the radiation budget have focused primary on polluted regions with substantial aerosol loadings. We reexamine this effect for a relatively "pristine" area using a unique 1-month dataset collected during recent Carbonaceous Aerosol and Radiative Effects Study (CARES). We demonstrate that the coarse-mode (supermicron) particles can contribute substantially (more than 50%) and frequently (up to 85% of time) to the total volume. In contrast to the conventional expectations that the radiative impact of coarse-mode aerosols should be small for "pristine" regions, we find that the neglecting of the large particles may lead to significant overestimation (up to 45%) of direct aerosol radiative forcing at the top-of atmosphere despite of very small aerosol optical depth (about 0.05 at 0.5 ). Our findings highlight the potential for widespread impacts of the coarse-mode aerosols on the pristine radiative properties over land and the need for more explicit inclusion of the coarse-mode aerosols in climate-related observational and model studies.