Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model
<p>Changes in the availability of a subset of aerosol known as ice-nucleating particles (INPs) can substantially alter cloud microphysical and radiative properties. Despite very large spatial and temporal variability in INP properties, many climate models do not currently represent the link be...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/291/2025/acp-25-291-2025.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1841553568622968832 |
|---|---|
| author | R. J. Herbert A. Sanchez-Marroquin A. Sanchez-Marroquin D. P. Grosvenor D. P. Grosvenor K. J. Pringle S. R. Arnold B. J. Murray K. S. Carslaw |
| author_facet | R. J. Herbert A. Sanchez-Marroquin A. Sanchez-Marroquin D. P. Grosvenor D. P. Grosvenor K. J. Pringle S. R. Arnold B. J. Murray K. S. Carslaw |
| author_sort | R. J. Herbert |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Changes in the availability of a subset of aerosol known as ice-nucleating particles (INPs) can substantially alter cloud microphysical and radiative properties. Despite very large spatial and temporal variability in INP properties, many climate models do not currently represent the link between (i) the global distribution of aerosols and INPs and (ii) primary ice production in clouds. Here we use the UK Earth System Model to simulate the global distribution of dust, marine-sourced, and black carbon INPs suitable for immersion-mode freezing of liquid cloud droplets over an annual cycle. The model captures the overall spatial and temporal distribution of measured INP concentrations, which is strongly influenced by the world's major mineral dust source regions. A negative bias in simulated versus measured INP concentrations at higher freezing temperatures points to incorrectly defined INP properties or a missing source of INPs. We find that the ability of the model to reproduce measured INP concentrations is greatly improved by representing dust as a mixture of mineralogical and organic ice-nucleating components, as present in many soils. To improve the agreement further, we define an optimized hypothetical parameterization of dust INP activity (<span class="inline-formula"><i>n</i><sub>s</sub>(<i>T</i>)</span>) as a function of temperature with a logarithmic slope of <span class="inline-formula">−0.175</span> K<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>, which is much shallower than existing parameterizations (e.g. <span class="inline-formula">−0.35</span> K<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span> for the K-feldspar data of <span class="cit" id="xref_altparen.1"><a href="#bib1.bibx47">Harrison et al.</a>, <a href="#bib1.bibx47">2019</a></span>). The results point to a globally important role for an organic component associated with mineral dust.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fe2c9d58a7a0482f9d3f31ef8865a8c7 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| spelling | doaj-art-fe2c9d58a7a0482f9d3f31ef8865a8c72025-01-09T08:06:12ZengCopernicus PublicationsAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics1680-73161680-73242025-01-012529132510.5194/acp-25-291-2025Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System ModelR. J. Herbert0A. Sanchez-Marroquin1A. Sanchez-Marroquin2D. P. Grosvenor3D. P. Grosvenor4K. J. Pringle5S. R. Arnold6B. J. Murray7K. S. Carslaw8Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UKInstitute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UKComputer Applications in Science and Engineering (CASE) Department, Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), Barcelona, SpainInstitute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UKMet Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, Fitzroy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, UKEdinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, Bayes Centre, University of Edinburgh, EH8 9BT, UKInstitute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UKInstitute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UKInstitute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK<p>Changes in the availability of a subset of aerosol known as ice-nucleating particles (INPs) can substantially alter cloud microphysical and radiative properties. Despite very large spatial and temporal variability in INP properties, many climate models do not currently represent the link between (i) the global distribution of aerosols and INPs and (ii) primary ice production in clouds. Here we use the UK Earth System Model to simulate the global distribution of dust, marine-sourced, and black carbon INPs suitable for immersion-mode freezing of liquid cloud droplets over an annual cycle. The model captures the overall spatial and temporal distribution of measured INP concentrations, which is strongly influenced by the world's major mineral dust source regions. A negative bias in simulated versus measured INP concentrations at higher freezing temperatures points to incorrectly defined INP properties or a missing source of INPs. We find that the ability of the model to reproduce measured INP concentrations is greatly improved by representing dust as a mixture of mineralogical and organic ice-nucleating components, as present in many soils. To improve the agreement further, we define an optimized hypothetical parameterization of dust INP activity (<span class="inline-formula"><i>n</i><sub>s</sub>(<i>T</i>)</span>) as a function of temperature with a logarithmic slope of <span class="inline-formula">−0.175</span> K<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span>, which is much shallower than existing parameterizations (e.g. <span class="inline-formula">−0.35</span> K<span class="inline-formula"><sup>−1</sup></span> for the K-feldspar data of <span class="cit" id="xref_altparen.1"><a href="#bib1.bibx47">Harrison et al.</a>, <a href="#bib1.bibx47">2019</a></span>). The results point to a globally important role for an organic component associated with mineral dust.</p>https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/291/2025/acp-25-291-2025.pdf |
| spellingShingle | R. J. Herbert A. Sanchez-Marroquin A. Sanchez-Marroquin D. P. Grosvenor D. P. Grosvenor K. J. Pringle S. R. Arnold B. J. Murray K. S. Carslaw Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| title | Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model |
| title_full | Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model |
| title_fullStr | Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model |
| title_short | Gaps in our understanding of ice-nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the UK Earth System Model |
| title_sort | gaps in our understanding of ice nucleating particle sources exposed by global simulation of the uk earth system model |
| url | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/25/291/2025/acp-25-291-2025.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT rjherbert gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT asanchezmarroquin gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT asanchezmarroquin gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT dpgrosvenor gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT dpgrosvenor gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT kjpringle gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT srarnold gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT bjmurray gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel AT kscarslaw gapsinourunderstandingoficenucleatingparticlesourcesexposedbyglobalsimulationoftheukearthsystemmodel |