Articles | Volume 27, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-4171-2009
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-27-4171-2009
05 Nov 2009
 | 05 Nov 2009

Black Carbon and West African Monsoon precipitation: observations and simulations

J. Huang, A. Adams, C. Wang, and C. Zhang

Abstract. We have recently investigated large-scale co-variability between aerosol and precipitation and other meteorological variables in the West African Monsoon (WAM) region using long term satellite observations and reanalysis data. In this study we compared the observational results to a global model simulation including only direct radiative forcing of black carbon (BC). From both observations and model simulations we found that in boreal cold seasons anomalously high African aerosols are associated with significant reductions in cloud amount, cloud top height, and surface precipitation. These results suggest that the observed precipitation reduction in the WAM region is caused by radiative effect of BC. The result also suggests that the BC effect on precipitation is nonlinear.