PNNL

Abstract

A variety of measurements have been used to evaluate the treatment of aerosol radiative properties and radiative impacts of aerosols simulated by the Model for Integrated Research on Atmospheric Global Exchanges (MIRAGE). The treatment of water uptake in MIRAGE agrees with laboratory measurements for the aerosol components that have been measured. The simulated frequency of relative humidity near 100% is about twice that of European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts analyzed relative humidity. When the analyzed relative humidity is used to calculate aerosol water uptake in MIRAGE, the simulated aerosol optical depth agrees with most surface measurements after cloudy conditions are filtered out and differences between model and station elevations are accounted for. Simulated optical depths are low over sites in Brazil during the biomass burning season and over sites in central Canada during the wildfire season, which can be attributed to limitations in the organic and black carbon emissions data used by MIRAGE. The simulated aerosol optical depths are mostly within a factor of two of satellite estimates, but MIRAGE simulates excessively high aerosol optical depths off the east coast of the US and China, and too little dust off the coast of West Africa and in the Arabian Sea. The simulated distribution of single-scatter albedo is consistent with the available in situ surface measurements. The simulated sensitivity of radiative forcing to aerosol optical depth is consistent with estimates from measurements where available. The simulated spatial distribution of aerosol radiance is broadly consistent with estimates from satellite measurements, but with the same errors as the aerosol optical depth. The simulated direct forcing is within the uncertainty of estimates from measurements in the North Atlantic.