CleanCloud

Clouds and climate transitioning to post-fossil aerosol regime: CleanCloud

Background: Aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI) remain the largest source of uncertainty in past, present, and future radiative forcing, impeding credible climate projections. ACI effects are expected to change dramatically as we enter a post-fossil world, characterized by strong reductions in anthropogenic aerosol emissions but with increasingly larger impacts from natural aerosols. CleanCloud has a global focus, however with key activities in the Arctic, as well as in the Southern Ocean.

Objectives/Mission:

CleanCloud will:

1) carry out targeted field experiments in European climate hotspots including the Arctic

2) develop state-of-the-art algorithms to obtain better proxies and diagnostics for key ACI-related processes

3) contribute to the calibration and validation of  satellite missions

4) improve and better constrain kilometer- and large-scale climate models

5) assess the role of aerosols in the life cycle of convective systems

6) enhance the exploitation of data centres, measurement programs, international campaigns, laboratory studies, and models.