Assessing the Climatic Impacts of Biomass Burning Aerosols over Southeast Asia Using Numerical Models and Multi-sensor Satellite Observations

This study uses NASA satellite observations along with a mesoscale model and in-situ measurements to evaluate aerosols impacts on climate over Southeast Asia (SE Asia, 10S~25N and 90E~135E). The influences of anthropogenic aerosols have been suggested as an important reason for climate change over SE Asia. However, the role and rationale of their effects on alteration of regional climate variables are poorly understood. Besides, the SE Asian region has also been recognized as a unique and complicated ocean-atmosphere-land environment for studying the effects of aerosols on energy budget, clouds, and precipitation. Accurate observations and modelling of aerosols effects on the weather and climate patterns is crucial for a better understanding and mitigation of anthropogenic climate change. Hence, this paper will assess the aerosol radiative effects over this region by assimilating satellite information in an aerosol transport model with detailed four-stream radiative transfer calculations. Quantification efforts are made to assess how radiative and non radiative parameters (sensible and latent heat) affect climate processes. Comparison of model simulations for the current land cover conditions against surface meteorological observations and satellite observations of precipitations and cloudiness show satisfactory performance of the model over our study area. In order to quantitatively validate the model results in SE Asia, several experiments will be performed to test the aerosols radiative feedback under different radiation schemes and with/without considering aerosol effects explicitly in the model. Relevant ground-based data (AERONET), along with aerosol vertical profile data from CALIPSO, will also be applied.