CHASER: An Innovative Satellite Mission Concept to Measure the Effects of Aerosols on Clouds and Climate

Nilton O. Rennó (1) , Earle Williams (2) , Daniel Rosenfeld (3) , David G. Fischer (4) , Jürgen Fischer (5) , Tibor Kremic (4) , Arun Agrawal (6) , Meinrat O. Andreae (7) , Rosina Bierbaum (6) , Richard Blakeslee (8) , Anko Boerner (9) , Neil Bowles (10) , Hugh Christian (11) , Ann Cox , Jason Dunion (12) , Akos Horvath (13) , Xianglei Huang (1) , Alexander Khain (3) , Stefan Kinne (13) , Maria C. Lemos (6) , Joyce E. Penner (1) , Ulrich Pöschl (7) , Johannes Quaas (14) , Elena Seran (15) , Bjorn Stevens , Thomas Walati (13) , Thomas Wagner (16)

1 AOSS - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Sciences [Ann Arbor]
2 CEE - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering [Cambridge]
3 HUJ - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
4 NASA Glenn Research Center
5 Freie Universität Berlin
6 School of Natural Resources and the Environment [Ann Arbor]
7 MPIC - Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
8 MSFC - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
9 DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt
10 AOPP - Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics [Oxford]
11 Earth System Science Center [Huntsville]
12 CIMAS - Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies
13 MPI-M - Max Planck Institute for Meteorology
14 LIM - Leipziger Institut für Meteorologie
15 STRATO - LATMOS
16 Institut für Umweltphysik [Heidelberg]

The formation of cloud droplets on aerosol particles, technically known as the activation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), is the fundamental process driving the interactions of aerosols with clouds and precipitation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Decadal Survey (NRC 2007) indicate that the uncertainty in how clouds adjust to aerosol perturbations dominates the uncertainty in the overall quantification of the radiative forcing attributable to human activities. Measurements by current satellites allow the determination of crude profiles of cloud particle size, but not of the activated CCN that seed them. The Clouds, Hazards, and Aerosols Survey for Earth Researchers (CHASER) mission concept responds to the IPCC and Decadal Survey concerns, utilizing a new technique and high-heritage instruments to measure all the quantities necessary to produce the first global survey maps of activated CCN and the properties of the clouds associated with them. CHASER also determines the activated CCN concentration and cloud thermodynamic forcing simultaneously, allowing the effects of each to be distinguished. Capsule CHASER proposes to revolutionize our understanding of the interactions of aerosols with clouds by making the first global survey of the fundamental physical entity linking them: activated cloud condensation nuclei.

Domaines: Climatologie; Milieux et Changements globaux; Météorologie

Nilton O. Rennó, Earle Williams, Daniel Rosenfeld, David G. Fischer, Jürgen Fischer, et al.. CHASER: An Innovative Satellite Mission Concept to Measure the Effects of Aerosols on Clouds and Climate. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2013, 94 (5), pp.685-694. ⟨10.1175/BAMS-D-11-00239.1⟩. ⟨hal-00785611⟩