An evaluation of the impact of aerosol particles on weather forecasts  from a biomass burning aerosol event over the Midwestern United States:  observational-based analysis of surface temperature

Zhang, Jianglong; Reid, Jeffrey S.; Christensen, Matthew; Benedetti, Angela

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6475-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6475-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6475-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 10

Research article

|

27 May 2016

Research article |

| 27 May 2016

An evaluation of the impact of aerosol particles on weather forecasts from a biomass burning aerosol event over the Midwestern United States: observational-based analysis of surface temperature

Jianglong Zhang, Jeffrey S. Reid, Matthew Christensen, and Angela Benedetti

Data sets

NASA AERONET data NASA AERONET http://aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov/

MODIS aerosol products NASA GSFC LAADS https://ladsweb.nascom.nasa.gov/

UKMO and NECP forecasts THORPEX Interactive Grand Global Ensemble (TIGGE) http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/data/tigge/levtype=sfc/type=cf/

ASOS data Iowa Environmental Mesonet http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/archive/

Official forecasts from NWS Iowa Environmental Mesonet http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/archive/

MODIS fire hotspot data (MOD14/MYD14) NASA GSFC LAADS https://ladsweb.nascom.nasa.gov/

Short summary

Through analyzing a smoke aerosol event over the Midwestern USA, the potential impacts of aerosol particles on model/weather-station-forecasted surface temperatures are studied, and for the first time, smoke-aerosol-induced surface cooling is investigated as a function of observed aerosol properties and multiple operational models over a large network of ground stations. The potential issues of incorporating aerosol models into weather models for forecasting surface temperatures are explored.