Final Report for LDRD Project 'A New Era of Research in Aerosol/Cloud/Climate Interactions at LLNL'

摘要

One of the largest uncertainties in simulations of climate change over the industrial period is the impact of anthropogenic aerosols on the Earth's radiation budget. Much of this uncertainty arises from the limited capability for either precisely linking precursor gases to the formation and size distribution of the aerosols or quantitatively describing the existing levels of global aerosol loading. This project builds on our aerosol and chemistry expertise to address each of these uncertainties in a more quantitative fashion than is currently possible. With the current LDRD support, we are in the process to implement an aerosol microphysics module into our global chemistry model to more fundamentally and completely describe the processes that determine the distribution of atmospheric aerosols. Using this new modeling capability, in conjunction with the most current version of NCAR climate model, we will examine the influence of these processes on aerosol direct and indirect climate forcing.