The studies in this dissertation aim at advancing our scientific understandings about physical processes involved in the aerosol-cloud-precipitation interaction and quantitatively assessing the impacts of aerosols on the cloud systems with diverse scales over the globe on the basis of the observational data analysis and various modeling studies. As recognized in the Fifth Assessment Report by the Inter-government Panel on Climate Change, the magnitude of radiative forcing by atmospheric aerosols is highly uncertain, representing the largest uncertainty in projections of future climate by anthropogenic activities. By using a newly implemented cloud microphysical scheme in the cloud-resolving model, the thesis assesses aerosol-cloud interaction for distinct weather systems, ranging from individual cumulus to mesoscale convective systems. This thesis also introduces a novel hierarchical modeling approach that solves a long outstanding mismatch between simulations by regional weather models and global climate models in the climate modeling community. More importantly, the thesis provides key scientific solutions to several challenging questions in climate science, including the global impacts of the Asian pollution. As scientists wrestle with the complexities of climate change in response to varied anthropogenic forcing, perhaps no problem is more challenging than the understanding of the impacts of atmospheric aerosols from air pollution on clouds and the global circulation.

Aerosol and clouds play important roles in determining the earth's climate, in ways that we are only beginning to comprehend. In conjunction with molecular scattering from gases, aerosol and clouds determine in part what fraction of solar radiation reaches the earth's surface, and what fraction of the longwave radiation from the earth escapes to space. This book provides an overview of the latest research on atmospheric aerosol and clouds and their effects on global climate. Subjects reviewed include the direct and indirect effects of aerosol on climate, the radiative properties of clouds and their effects on the Earth's radiation balance, the incorporation of cloud effects in numerical weather prediction models, and stratospheric aerosol and clouds.

Atmospheric aerosols play a major role in regional atmospheric chemistry and air quality, while on a global scale, aerosol processes continue to represent the largest source of uncertainty related to climate change. An important aspect of understanding the role of aerosols in these areas is to document the vertical exchange of aerosols with the surface in both urban and rural landscapes since the vertical exchange represents important sources and sinks of aerosols on regional and global scales. In this dissertation, investigation of aerosol dynamics is described for three separate field studies. First, urban eddy covariance flux measurements were made from a building rooftop in Mexico City using a quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometer (Q-AMS) to determine the fluxes of aerosol species to/from the urban landscape. Second, conditional sampling of fine particles in updrafts and downdrafts was performed above a pine forest in Colorado using a thermal desorption chemical ionization mass spectrometer (TD-CIMS) to investigate the relative strengths of sources and sinks for speciated aerosol in a forest environment. Third, the aerosol and gas phase pollutant patterns, measured in Boise, ID during wintertime inversion conditions, were analyzed with respect to the daily evolution of the planetary boundary layer depth and surface meteorological conditions. This dissertation describes the methods used for each of the three studies and summarizes the analysis of the results.

Clouds and Their Climatic Impacts Clouds are an influential and complex element of Earth’s climate system. They evolve rapidly in time and exist over small spatial scales, but also affect global radiative balance and large-scale circulations. With more powerful models and extensive observations now at our disposal, the climate impact of clouds is receiving ever more research attention. Clouds and Their Climatic Impacts: Radiation, Circulation, and Precipitation presents an overview of our current understanding on various types of clouds and cloud systems and their multifaceted role in the radiative budget, circulation patterns, and rainfall. Volume highlights include: Interactions of aerosol with both liquid and ice clouds Surface and atmospheric cloud radiative feedbacks and effects Arctic, extratropical, and tropical clouds Cloud-circulation coupling at global, meso, and micro scales Precipitation efficiency, phase, and measurements The role of machine learning in understanding clouds and climate The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals.

Atmospheric aerosol particles impact human health in urban environments, while on regional and global scales they can affect climate patterns, the hydrological cycle, and the intensity of radiation that reaches the Earth's surface. In spite of recent advances in the understanding of aerosol formation processes and the links between aerosol dynamics and biosphere-atmosphere-climate interactions, great challenges remain in the analysis of related processes on a global scale. Boreal forests, situated in a circumpolar belt in the northern latitudes throughout the United States, Canada, Russia and Scandinavia, are among the most active areas of atmospheric aerosol formation among all biomes. The formation of aerosol particles and their growth to the sizes of cloud condensation nuclei in these areas are associated with biogenic volatile organic emissions from vegetation and soil.

Remote Sensing of Aerosols, Clouds, and Precipitation compiles recent advances in aerosol, cloud, and precipitation remote sensing from new satellite observations. The book examines a wide range of measurements from microwave (both active and passive), visible, and infrared portions of the spectrum. Contributors are experts conducting state-of-the-art research in atmospheric remote sensing using space, airborne, and ground-based datasets, focusing on supporting earth observation satellite missions for aerosol, cloud, and precipitation studies. A handy reference for scientists working in remote sensing, earth science, electromagnetics, climate physics, and space engineering. Valuable for operational forecasters, meteorologists, geospatial experts, modelers, and policymakers alike. Presents new approaches in the field, along with further research opportunities, based on the latest satellite data Focuses on how remote sensing systems can be designed/developed to solve outstanding problems in earth and atmospheric sciences Edited by a dynamic team of editors with a mixture of highly skilled and qualified authors offering world-leading expertise in the field

One of the main objectives of this study is to analyze the consistency between the aerosol above clouds (AAC) retrievals from passive and active satellite measurements. We consider the method based on the passive polarization measurements provided by the POLDER instrument, the operational method developed for the space borne lidar CALIOP, and the CALIOP-based depolarization ratio method (DRM), for which we also propose a calibrated version. We perform a regional analysis and a global multi-annual analysis to provide robust statistics results. Our findings show good agreement between DRM and POLDER AOT retrievals (R2=0.68 at global scale). This result gives confidence in our ability to measure the properties of AAC. Differences occur when the aerosol and cloud layers are in contact. CALIOP operational method is largely underestimating the above cloud AOT, compared to the other two methods.The second objective is to study the impact of aerosols on the cloud properties and their radiative forcing, over the South Atlantic Ocean. We perform a synergy between CALIOP vertical profiles and POLDER retrievals, with collocated meteorological parameters. We performed radiative transfer calculations in the short- and longwave domains, and analyzed the effect of aerosol loading on the cloud properties and meteorology. We found that aerosols and water vapor effects could impact the cloud convection. Our results show that under large loads of AACs, clouds become optically thicker, with an increase in liquid water path of 20 g.m-2 and their cloud top altitudes are lower by 200 m, which may indicate a potential semi-direct effect of aerosols above clouds.