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Ocean-atmosphere interactions and multi-scale climate variability in a changing climate
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Arctic sulfate aerosol and cloud sensitivity to changes in future surface seawater dimethylsulfide concentrations P-P2-06 Rashed Mahmood* , School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Knut von Salzen, Canadian Center for Climate Modelling and Analysis, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Ann-Lise Norman, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada Mart¨ª Gal¨ª, Takuvik Joint International Laboratory & Qu¨¦bec-Oc¨¦an, Universit¨¦ Laval, Qu¨¦bec, Qu¨¦bec, Canadabec, Canada Maurice Levasseur, Takuvik Joint International Laboratory & Qu¨¦bec-Oc¨¦an, Universit¨¦ Laval, Qu¨¦bec, Qu¨¦bec, Canada Shuanglin Li, Department of Atmospheric Science,China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China Presenter Email: rmahmood@uvic.ca |
Dimethylsulfide (DMS), outgassed from ocean waters, plays an important role in the climate system, as it oxidizes to methane sulfonic acid (MSA) and sulfur dioxide (SO2), which can lead to the formation of sulfate aerosol. Newly formed sulfate aerosol resulting from DMS oxidation may grow by condensation of gases, in-cloud oxidation, and coagulation to sizes where they may act as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and influence cloud properties. Under future global warming conditions, sea-ice in the Arctic region is expected to decline significantly, which may lead to increased emissions of DMS from the open ocean and changes in cloud regimes. In this study we evaluate impacts of DMS on Arctic sulfate aerosol budget, changes in cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC), and cloud radiative forcing in the Arctic region under current (2000) and future (2050) sea ice conditions using an atmospheric general circulation model. Given that future DMS concentrations are highly uncertain, several simulations with different surface seawater DMS concentrations and spatial distributions in the Arctic were performed in order to determine the sensitivity of sulfate aerosol budgets, CDNC, and cloud radiative forcing to Arctic surface seawater DMS concentrations. We found that the simulated aerosol nucleation rates are higher in future, which results in an overall increase in CDNC and substantially more negative cloud radiative forcing. Thus potential future reductions in sea ice extent may cause cloud albedos to increase, resulting in a negative climate feedback on radiative forcing in the Arctic associated with ocean DMS emissions.
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