3D direct impacts of urban aerosols on dynamics during the CAPITOUL field experiment

Benjamin Aouizerats (1) , Pierre Tulet (2, 3) , Laurent Gomes (2)

1 VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam [Amsterdam]
2 CNRM - Centre national de recherches météorologiques
3 LACy - Laboratoire de l'Atmosphère et des Cyclones

Evaluating the radiative impacts of aerosol particles is of great interest for understanding atmospheric physics and processes feedbacks. To respond to such objectives, the online fully coupled model Meso-NH is applied to a real case during a two-day Intensive Observation Period (IOP) of the CAPITOUL campaign. The aerosol optical properties are computed from the chemical composition and the size distribution of the particle population, and are compared to observations and analysed at local and regional scales. The differences between two simulations are then studied in order to isolate the direct radiative impacts of aerosols on dynamics. Results show that the aerosol particles generate a forcing on shortwave flux by a decrease of the amount reaching the surface up to 30 Wm−2. The resulting feedbacks lead to a cooling up to 0.6 K on the 2-meter temperature over the city of Toulouse and over the larger 125 km by 125 km area around Toulouse. This cooling is also modeled along the whole boundary layer, leading to a decrease of the boundary layer height up to −50 m during the afternoon and a decrease of the vertical velocities with an average of −3 %.

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]

Benjamin Aouizerats, Pierre Tulet, Laurent Gomes. 3D direct impacts of urban aerosols on dynamics during the CAPITOUL field experiment. Geophysical Research Letters, 2012, 39 (23), pp.L23807. ⟨10.1029/2012GL053781⟩. ⟨hal-00961647⟩