2003 Volume 18 Issue 4 Pages 253-256
Recent development in modeling study of aerosol's indirect effect with GCM (General Circulation Model) is reviewed. We introduce several types of parameterization currently used for incorporating the indirect effect of aerosols into GCM in order to evaluate the climatic impact of aerosols on cloud processes. Those parameterizations allow us to determine the cloud droplet number concentration from the aerosol particle number concentration, as well as estimate the precipitation formation from clouds as a function of the cloud droplet number concentration. Previous GCM calculated the effective radius of cloud droplet in order to compare it with satellite-observed values on a global scale. Few works were devoted to the investigation of model-derived correlation statistics between the cloud and the aerosol properties for comparison with the corresponding satellite results. We also introduce previous attempts to evaluate the indirect radiative forcing induced by anthropogenic aerosols.
