Anthropogenic aerosol emissions and rainfall decline in South-West Australia - accompanying model results in NetCDF format

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Main Authors: Heinzeller, Dominikus, Junkermann, Wolfgang, Kunstmann, Harald
Format: Dataset Open Access
Language:en
Published: PANGAEA 2016
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author Heinzeller, Dominikus
Junkermann, Wolfgang
Kunstmann, Harald
author_facet Heinzeller, Dominikus
Junkermann, Wolfgang
Kunstmann, Harald
collection Datos científicos de ciencias marinas y ambientales
contents It is commonly understood that the observed decline in precipitation in southwestern Australia during the twentieth century is caused by anthropogenic factors. Candidates therefore are changes to large-scale atmospheric circulations due to global warming, extensive deforestation, and anthropogenic aerosol emissions—all of which are effective on different spatial and temporal scales. This contribution focuses on the role of rapidly rising aerosol emissions from anthropogenic sources in southwestern Australia around 1970. An analysis of historical long-term rainfall data of the Bureau of Meteorology shows that southwestern Australia as a whole experienced a gradual decline in precipitation over the twentieth century. However, on smaller scales and for the particular example of the Perth catchment area, a sudden drop in precipitation around 1970 is apparent. Modeling experiments at a convection-resolving resolution of 3.3 km using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model version 3.6.1 with the aerosol-aware Thompson–Eidhammer microphysics scheme are conducted for the period 1970–74. A comparison of four runs with different prescribed aerosol emissions and without aerosol effects demonstrates that tripling the pre-1960s atmospheric CCN and IN concentrations can suppress precipitation by 2%–9%, depending on the area and the season. This suggests that a combination of all three processes is required to account for the gradual decline in rainfall seen for greater southwestern Australia and for the sudden drop observed in areas along the west coast in the 1970s: changing atmospheric circulations, deforestation, and anthropogenic aerosol emissions.
format Dataset Open Access
id pangaea_https___doi_org_10_1594_PANGAEA_859952
institution PANGAEA
language en
publishDate 2016
publisher PANGAEA
record_format pangaea
spellingShingle Anthropogenic aerosol emissions and rainfall decline in South-West Australia - accompanying model results in NetCDF format
Heinzeller, Dominikus
Junkermann, Wolfgang
Kunstmann, Harald
australia_sw; South Australia; South-West Australia
It is commonly understood that the observed decline in precipitation in southwestern Australia during the twentieth century is caused by anthropogenic factors. Candidates therefore are changes to large-scale atmospheric circulations due to global warming, extensive deforestation, and anthropogenic aerosol emissions—all of which are effective on different spatial and temporal scales. This contribution focuses on the role of rapidly rising aerosol emissions from anthropogenic sources in southwestern Australia around 1970. An analysis of historical long-term rainfall data of the Bureau of Meteorology shows that southwestern Australia as a whole experienced a gradual decline in precipitation over the twentieth century. However, on smaller scales and for the particular example of the Perth catchment area, a sudden drop in precipitation around 1970 is apparent. Modeling experiments at a convection-resolving resolution of 3.3 km using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model version 3.6.1 with the aerosol-aware Thompson–Eidhammer microphysics scheme are conducted for the period 1970–74. A comparison of four runs with different prescribed aerosol emissions and without aerosol effects demonstrates that tripling the pre-1960s atmospheric CCN and IN concentrations can suppress precipitation by 2%–9%, depending on the area and the season. This suggests that a combination of all three processes is required to account for the gradual decline in rainfall seen for greater southwestern Australia and for the sudden drop observed in areas along the west coast in the 1970s: changing atmospheric circulations, deforestation, and anthropogenic aerosol emissions.
title Anthropogenic aerosol emissions and rainfall decline in South-West Australia - accompanying model results in NetCDF format
topic australia_sw; South Australia; South-West Australia
url https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.859952