Regional Climate Effects of Internally and Externally Mixed Aerosols over China

A regional climate model is employed to simulate the aerosols （dust, sulfate, black carbon, and organic carbon） and their direct effect on the climate over China. The emphasis is on the direct radiative forcing due to the change in mixing state of aerosols. The results show that direct radiative forcing is significantly different between externally and internally mixed aerosols. At the top of the atmosphere （TOA）, the radiative forcing of externally mixed aerosols is larger than that of internally mixed ones, especially in the Tarim desert region where the difference is about 0.7 W m-2. At the surface, however, the situation becomes opposite, especially in the Sichuan basin where the difference is about 1.4 W m-2. Nonetheless, either externally or internally mixed aerosols in China can result in a significant cooling effect, except for the warming in South China in winter and the slight warming in North China in February. The cooling effect induced by externally mixed aerosols is weaker than that induced by internally mixed aerosols, and this is more obvious in spring and winter than in summer and autumn. In spring and summer, the inhibiting effect of externally mixed aerosols on precipitation is less than that of internally mixed aerosols, whereas in autumn and winter the difference is not obvious.

Impacts of Internally and Externally Mixed Anthropogenic Sulfate and Carbonaceous Aerosols on East Asian Climate

A coupled regional climate and aerosol-chemistry model, RIEMS 2.0 （Regional Integrated Environmental Model System for Asia）, in which anthropogenic sulfate, black carbon, and organic carbon were assumed to be externally mixed （EM）, internally mixed （IM） or partially internally mixed （IEM）, was used to simulate the impacts of these anthropogenic aerosols on East Asian climate for the entire year of 2006. The distributions of aerosol mass concentration, radiative forcing and hence the surface air temperature and precipitation variations under three mixing assumptions of aerosols were analyzed. The results indicated that the mass concentration of sulfate was sensitive to mixing assumptions, but carbonaceous aerosols were much less sensitive to the mixing types. Modeled results were compared with observations in a variety of sites in East Asia. It was found that the simulated concentrations of sulfate and carbonaceous aerosols were in accord with the observations in terms of magnitude. The simulated aerosol concentrations in IM case were closest to observation results. The regional average column burdens of sulfate, black carbon, and organic carbon, if internally mixed, were 11.49, 0.47, and 2.17 mg m 2 , respectively. The radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols at the top of the atmosphere increased from –1.27 （EM） to –1.97 W m 2 （IM） while the normalized radiative forcing （NRF） decreased from –0.145 （EM） to –0.139 W mg 1 （IM）. The radiative forcing and NRF were –1.82 W m 2 and –0.141 W mg 1 for IEM, respectively. The surface air temperature changes over the domain due to the anthropogenic sulfate and carbonaceous aerosols were –0.067, –0.078, and –0.072 K, with maxima of –0.47, –0.50, and –0.49 K, for EM, IM, and IEM, respectively. Meanwhile, the annual precipitation variations were –8.0 （EM）, –20.6 （IM）, and –21.9 mm （IEM）, with maxima of 148, 122, and 102 mm, respectively, indicating that the climate effects were stronger if the sulfate and carbonaceous aerosols were internally mixed.