Aerosols affect the Earth's climate through their interaction with clouds by acting as sites on which cloud droplets can form. These interactions alter the cloud's microphysics and lifetime. This effect is of critical importance as clouds perform a major role in maintaining the Earth's radiation balance primarily by reflecting sunlight back into space and absorbing the infrared radiation emitted by the Earth. The number and size of droplets are the key factors influencing how much radiation clouds reflect back into space. A cloud droplet activation parameterisation has been implemented in the REMOTE (REgional MOdel with Tracer Extension) regional climate model. The parameterisation provides a robust computationally efficient treatment of aerosol cloud interactions. There are large uncertainties in the indirect effect due to the complex aerosol cloud interactions involved. REMOTE, including the newly implemented cloud droplet nucleation scheme, provides a useful tool to study the indirect effect of aerosols. REMOTE (Langmann, 2000) is a three-dimensional high-resolution regional climate model (RCM). The dynamics are based on the regional weather forecast model system of the German Weather Service, while physical parameterisations are based on the ECHAM4 (European Centre Hamburg Model 4). The aerosol dynamics are based on the modal aerosol model M7 (Vignati et al., 2004). It includes RADM2 (Regional Acid Deposition Model 2) chemistry and is driven by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) analysis data every six hours at lower and lateral boundaries. The model covers a domain of the north-east Atlantic Ocean and most of Europe. A combined organic inorganic seaspray source function has been incorporated into the model and the model now also includes a treatment of aerosol deposition. It has been shown that organic matter is highly significant in the marine environment and the combined organic inorganic sea-spray source function provides useful input for the RCM. The months of January and June 2003 were chosen as case studies for model simulations. Using these two months, the effect of increased levels of organic matter during summertime compared to wintertime can be evaluated. For both months droplet effective radius is larger over the ocean than the continent. The average droplet effective radii within an area (M1) off the west coast of Ireland are 11.39 µm and 11.59 µm for January and June, respectively. This area M1 was chosen as being representative of north-east Atlantic marine conditions. Within the M1 area around Ireland, the average cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) for January was 41.2 cm-3 and the average CDNC for June was 23.8 cm3. The average wind speeds for January and June were 8.8 ms-1 and 6.1 ms-1, respectively. The addition of this cloud droplet activation parameterisation makes REMOTE one of the most advanced regional climate models available worldwide, and, along with other developments taking place, will help REMOTE to provide detailed climate predictions for Europe and the north Atlantic with particular reference to Ireland. Some other developments taking place with REMOTE include treatments of ozone deposition, coastal nucleation and secondary organic aerosols. The model will be used for long-term simulations based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) AR5 (Fifth Assessment Report) emission scenarios, and will also be used to study air quality and links between air quality and climate change. The inclusion of the aerosol cloud interaction parameterisation makes the model particularly suitable for studying precipitation trends for Ireland and the rest of Europe.

Go back to top of page Top

Go back to top of page Top

Please Read Carefully Before Downloading

It is important for the EPA and the Environmental Research Community to know that the data and information products we distribute are useful to the user community we support. One way of doing this is by tracking the use of data and information in publications. Parts of or all of the datasets, data, or digital information products available here can be freely downloaded for further use in scientific applications under the condition that the source will be properly quoted in published papers, journals, websites, presentations, books, etc. Whenever possible the EPA strongly urge you to cite the use of these data, information, and web resources in the reference section of your publications. For convenience an automatically generated citation is available below which can be used immediately for citation purposes.

EPA SAFER Data Download Disclaimer: Before downloading any of the data or information objects below you are kindly asked to read the data download disclaimer Read Disclaimer (Opens in New Window). Downloading data or information objects from SAFER-Data indicates an acceptance of the data download disclaimer and the conditions outlined within it.

Suggested Citation Information

The information supplied in the table below should be provided with all citations to this electronic resource. You are requested to format each of the fields below as required by the specific bibliographical style you are using.

An example of this citation in proper usage:

Flanagan, J.R. O?Dowd, C.   "Elucidating the Impact of Aerosols on Cloud Physics and the North Atlantic Regional Climate (EIRE Climate)". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=59a4d418-f05b-102d-af1a-60cde515b757 (Last Accessed: 2025-02-10)

Permalink

Go back to top of page Top

SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=181
Resource Keywords	Aerosols climate clouds radiation precipitation air quality REMOTE North Atlantic Regional Climate
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2008-FS-29-M1
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Climate Change
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	It is crucial that any 3rd party use of the information provided is properly cited when used in any: publication, website, web blog, presentation, report, technical report, or article. An automated citation is provided below and should be used as a guide for the proper citation for this resource.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	2
Project Start Date	Wednesday 1st January 2003 (01-01-2003)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Wednesday 1st January 2003 (01-01-2003)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Monday 30th June 2003 (30-06-2003)
Published on SAFER	Tuesday 3rd August 2010 (03-08-2010)
Date of Last Edit	Tuesday 3rd August 2010 at 15:09:30 (03-08-2010)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Tuesday 3rd August 2010 at 15:09:30 (03-08-2010)

Go back to top of page Top

Description of Geographical Characteristics of This Project or Dataset
The regional model (REMO) is based in the dynamical part on the regional weather forecast model system EM/DM (Europa-Modell/Deutschland-Modell) of the German Weather Service (Majewski, 1991). It includes the physical parameterisation package of the global model ECHAM4 (Roeckner et al., 1996). This allows a consistent model chain of the driving global climate model and the regional model to be applied for climate simulations. Additionally, the REMO can be forced by analysis data at its lateral boundaries. This allows a comparison of model results with observations to improve the model. Alternatively, the REMO can help to interpret field experiments as it fills the gaps in observational data. The REMOTE used in this work contains all the features of the REMO listed above but also includes many extra features.

Go back to top of page Top

In this section some supplementary information about this resource is outlined. Lineage information helps us to understand why this project was carried out, what policy or research requirements did it fulfil, etc. Lineage is important in understanding the rationale behind the carrying out of a project or the collection of a specific dataset etc. Links to web sites, applications, papers, etc are outlined to provide you with additional information or supplementary reading about the project or dataset

Any links supplied by the resource owner are stored such that they will open in a new window. Following such a link may lead to a 3rd party website over which EPA has no control in regards to contents or suitability.

Go back to top of page Top

The following is a list of projects, datasets, and resources on SAFER-Data from which users downloaded attachments from soon after downloading attachments from this resource Elucidating the Impact of Aerosols on Cloud Physics and the North Atlantic Regional Climate (EIRE Climate). You can view the full description for projects, datasets, and resources by using the links supplied.

• Assessment of the Potential for Geological Storage of CO2 in Hypothetical Deep Saline Aquifers in the vicinity of Moneypoint, Co. Clare. View Full Metadata Description
• Current Status and Required Actions for National Climate Observing Systems View Full Metadata Description
• Environmental Technology: Development of an Alum Sludge-Based Constructed Wetland System for Improving Organic Matter and Nutrients Removal in High-Strength Wastewater View Full Metadata Description
• Climate Change - Implementationof the Global Climate Observing System in Ireland View Full Metadata Description
• Water Framework Directive: Recharge and Groundwater Vulnerability View Full Metadata Description

Go back to top of page Top