PNNL

Abstract

This study investigates the impacts of wildfire aerosols (primary organic carbon, black carbon and sulfate) on the Northern hemispheric in January. We found that wildfire aerosols emitted from equatorial Africa result in two mid-high latitude Rossby wave trains. One is from subtropical Atlantic propagating northeastward across Europe to Siberia, and the other one propagates eastward from Mid-East across Asia to Northwest Pacific. The maximum positive height anomaly locates in Europe, concurrent with a greater-than-2K surface warming. These Rossby wave trains are excited by the atmospheric heating in equatorial Africa and propagate into extratropics with the help of the westerly jet. Through the diabatic heat budget analysis, the source of the Rossby wave is primarily due to the solar absorption of black carbon in Africa. The present study emphasize that aerosols especial the absorbing aerosols would have profound thermo-dynamic effects on remote regions and need more attentions.