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Radiative impact of mineral dust on monsoon precipitation variability over West Africa

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TLDR
In this paper, the radiative forcing of dust and its impact on precipitation over the West Africa monsoon (WAM) region is simulated using a coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model (WRF-Chem).
Abstract
The radiative forcing of dust and its impact on precipitation over the West Africa monsoon (WAM) region is simulated using a coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model (WRF-Chem). During the mon- soon season, dust is a dominant contributor to aerosol optical depth (AOD) over West Africa. In the control simulation, on 24-h domain average, dust has a cool- ing effect ( 6.11 W m 2 ) at the surface, a warming effect (6.94 W m 2 ) in the atmosphere, and a relatively small TOA forcing (0.83 W m 2 ). Dust modifies the surface energy bud- get and atmospheric diabatic heating. As a result, atmo- spheric stability is increased in the daytime and reduced in the nighttime, leading to a reduction of late afternoon pre- cipitation by up to 0.14 mm/h (25%) and an increase of noc- turnal and early morning precipitation by up to 0.04 mm/h (45%) over the WAM region. Dust-induced reduction of diurnal precipitation variation improves the simulated diur- nal cycle of precipitation when compared to measurements. However, daily precipitation is only changed by a relatively small amount ( 0.17 mm/day or 4%). The dust-induced change of WAM precipitation is not sensitive to interannual monsoon variability. On the other hand, sensitivity simula- tions with weaker to stronger absorbing dust (in order to rep- resent the uncertainty in dust solar absorptivity) show that, at the lower atmosphere, dust longwave warming effect in the nighttime surpasses its shortwave cooling effect in the daytime; this leads to a less stable atmosphere associated with more convective precipitation in the nighttime. As a result, the dust-induced change of daily WAM precipitation varies from a significant reduction of 0.52 mm/day ( 12%, weaker absorbing dust) to a small increase of 0.03 mm/day (1%, stronger absorbing dust). This variation originates from the competition between dust impact on daytime and night-

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References
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A Description of the Advanced Research WRF Version 3

TL;DR: The Technical Note series provides an outlet for a variety of NCAR manuscripts that contribute in specialized ways to the body of scientific knowledge but which are not suitable for journal, monograph, or book publication.
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Radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: RRTM, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave

TL;DR: A rapid and accurate radiative transfer model (RRTM) for climate applications has been developed and the results extensively evaluated as discussed by the authors, which is performed using the correlated-k method: the k distributions are attained directly from the LBLRTM line-byline model, which connects the absorption coefficients used by RRTM to high-resolution radiance validations done with observations.
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The TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA): Quasi-Global, Multiyear, Combined-Sensor Precipitation Estimates at Fine Scales

TL;DR: The TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA) as discussed by the authors provides a calibration-based sequential scheme for combining precipitation estimates from multiple satellites, as well as gauge analyses where feasible, at fine scales.
Journal ArticleDOI

The MODIS Aerosol Algorithm, Products and Validation

TL;DR: In this article, the spectral optical thickness and effective radius of the aerosol over the ocean were validated by comparison with two years of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) data.
Related Papers (5)
Trending Questions (1)
How does aerosol optical depth influence rainfall in west africa?

The paper states that aerosol optical depth (AOD) from Saharan dust in West Africa can modify the radiative and physical properties of clouds, which can affect the development and precipitation of the West African Monsoon (WAM) system. However, the specific influence of AOD on rainfall in West Africa is not explicitly mentioned in the paper.