PNNL

Abstract

Several different ice nucleation parameterizations in two different General Circulation Models are used to understand the effects of ice nucleation on the mean climate state, and the climate effect of aerosol perturbations to ice clouds. The simulations have different ice microphysical states that are consistent with the spread of observations. These different states occur from different parameterizations of the ice cloud nucleation processes, and feature different balances of homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation. At reasonable efficiencies, consistent with laboratory measurements and constrained by the global radiative balance, black carbon has a small (-0.06 Wm-2) and not statistically significant climate effect. Indirect effects of anthropogenic aerosols on cirrus clouds occur mostly due to increases in homogeneous nucleation fraction as a consequence of anthropogenic sulfur emissions. The resulting ice indirect effects do not seem strongly dependent on the ice micro-physical balance, but are slightly larger for those states with less homogeneous nucleation in the base state. The total ice AIE is estimated at 0.26±0.09 Wm-2 (1? uncertainty). This represents an offset of 20-30% of the simulated total Aerosol Indirect Effect for ice and liquid clouds.