Impact of Local Pollution Versus Long Range Transported Aerosols on Clouds and Precipitation over California

Abstract:

Aerosols form cloud droplets and ice crystals in clouds and can profoundly impact precipitation processes. In-situ aircraft measurements of the composition of individual cloud residuals have been used to study the impact of different aerosol sources including sea spray, dust, soot, and biomass burning on cloud microphysics and precipitation processes. Aircraft studies in 2011 as part of the CalWater project showed that long range transport of dust aerosols from as far away as Africa and biological particles can lead to an increase in the amount of snowfall over California. This presentation will describe results from CalWater-2015 involving aircraft and ground-based measurements at a coastal site. A discussion of the aerosol sources measured in clouds will be presented detailing the relative impacts of local versus long range transported pollution aerosols over California.