Journal Article

Sensitivities of Large Eddy Simulations of Aerosol Plume Transport and Cloud Response

Kulkarni, Gourihar, Kaul, Colleen M., Pressel, Kyle G., Blossey, Peter N., Dhandapani, Chandru, Wood, Robert

2025

Overview

Cloud responses to surface‐based sources of aerosol perturbation partially depend on how turbulent transport of the aerosol to cloud base affects the spatial and temporal distribution of aerosol. Here, scenarios of plume injection below a marine stratocumulus cloud are modeled using large eddy simulations coupled to a prognostic bulk aerosol and cloud microphysics scheme. Both passive plumes, consisting of an inert tracer, and active plumes are investigated, where the latter are representative of saltwater droplet plumes such as have been proposed for marine cloud brightening. Passive plume scenarios show higher in‐plume cloud brightness (relative to out‐of‐plume) due to the predominant transport of the passive plume tracer from the near‐surface to the cloud layer within updrafts. These updrafts rise into brighter areas within the cloud deck, even in the absence of an aerosol perturbation associated with an active plume. Comparing albedo at in‐plume to out‐of‐plume locations associates the inert plume with the brightest cloud locations, without any causal effect of the plume on the cloud. Numerical sensitivities are first assessed to establish a suitable model configuration. Then sensitivity to particle injection rate is investigated. Trade‐offs are identified between the number of injected particles and the suppressive effect of droplet evaporation on plume loft and spread. Furthermore, as the near‐field in‐plume brightening effect does not depend significantly on injection rate given a suitable definition of perturbed versus unperturbed regions of the flow, plume area is a key controlling factor on the overall cloud brightening effect of an aerosol perturbation. Plain Language Summary Increasing the ability of marine clouds to reflect sunlight by leveraging interactions between clouds and aerosols has been proposed as a means of countering climate change known as marine cloud brightening. However, such proposals rely on the ability to apply suitable aerosol perturbations to the clouds using the atmosphere's own turbulent mixing processes. Here, high‐resolution numerical modeling methods are tested and used to investigate the details of aerosol delivery to a marine cloud from a near‐surface‐based plume. Key Points Plume transport shows grid‐spacing sensitivity, but moderate resolutions can capture in‐ versus out‐of‐plume cloud brightness contrasts Examination of passive scalar injections shows that tracers are preferentially lofted by updrafts to brighter regions of a cloud Assessments of aerosol‐induced cloud brightening may overestimate brightening effects if they do not account for this preferential transport

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Subject: aerosol cloud interactions / Aerosols / Albedo / Case studies / Cloud microphysics / Clouds / Droplets / Evaporation / Injection / Large eddy simulations / marine cloud brightening / Microphysics / numerical sensitivities / plume transport / Plumes / Radiation / Saline water / Simulation / Stratocumulus clouds / Temporal distribution / Tracers / Updraft