Journal Article
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 110, iss. 48, 2013
Authors
Jiwen Fan, L. Ruby Leung, Daniel Rosenfeld, Qian Chen, Zhanqing Li, Jinqiang Zhang, Hongru Yan
Abstract
Significance
Deep convective clouds (DCCs) play a key role in atmospheric circulation and the hydrological and energy cycle. How aerosol particles affect DCCs is poorly understood, making it difficult to understand current and future weather and climate. Our work showed that in addition to the invigoration of convection, which has been unanimously cited for explaining the observed results, the microphysical effects induced by aerosols are a fundamental reason for the observed increases in cloud fraction, cloud top height, and cloud thickness in the polluted environment, even when invigoration is absent. The finding calls for an augmented focus on understanding the changes in stratiform/anvils associated with convective life cycle.
