Effects of Different Types of Aerosols on Deep Convective Clouds and Anvil Cirrus.

Deep convective clouds and associated anvils exert opposite radiative effects. The impact of different aerosol types on these two categories of clouds remains a major challenge in understanding aerosol‐cloud interactions. Using 11‐year satellite retrievals, we find that cloud top height (CTH) and ice cloud fraction of deep convective clouds and anvil cirrus identified by Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization increase with small aerosol loadings and level off or even decrease with further aerosol increase. Compared with continental aerosols, CTH affected by marine aerosols starts to decrease at smaller aerosol loadings. Moreover, cloud optical depth (COD) of deep convective clouds decreases with aerosol loadings. COD of anvil cirrus increases with increased loadings of most aerosol types but decreases with smoke aerosol. These relationships are mainly attributed to the aerosol effect rather than the meteorological effects. Our findings contribute to the development of models and better assessment of aerosol‐cloud radiative forcing. Plain Language Summary: By acting as the seeds of clouds, aerosols affect the formation and development of clouds, thereby affecting climate. Deep convective clouds and associated anvil cirrus are often accompanied with severe weather events. These two types of clouds have opposite climate effects: the former generally cools the Earth system while the latter warms the Earth system. Using 11 years of satellite data, we find that with the increase of aerosol loadings, the cloud top height (CTH) and cloud fraction of deep convective clouds and anvil cirrus identified by Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization first increase and then remain virtually unchanged or even decrease. We also analyze the effects of different types of aerosols on deep convective clouds and anvil cirrus. We find that, compared with continental aerosols, CTH affected by marine aerosols starts to decrease at smaller aerosol loadings. As the aerosol loadings increase, the cloud optical depth of deep convective clouds decreases while the optical thickness of the anvil cirrus increases. Therefore, these two categories of clouds as well as the effects from various aerosol types should be carefully considered when quantifying the aerosol effects on deep convective cloud systems. Key Points: The height and amount of Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization‐identified deep convective clouds and anvil cirrus first increase and then level off with aerosol increaseMarine aerosols start to decrease cloud top height when aerosol optical depth is relatively smaller than continental aerosolsWith increased aerosol loadings, deep convective clouds have a decreased cloud optical depth (COD) while anvils have an increased COD. One exception is for smoke [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]