Relative importance of acid coating on ice nuclei in the deposition and contact modes for wintertime Arctic clouds and radiation

Aerosols emitted from volcanic activities and polluted mid-latitudes regions are efficiently transported over the Arctic during winter by the large-scale atmospheric circulation. These aerosols are highly acidic. The acid coating on ice nuclei, which are present among these aerosols, alters their ability to nucleate ice crystals. In this research, the effect of acid coating on deposition and contact ice nuclei on the Arctic cloud and radiation is evaluated for January 2007 using a regional climate model. Results show that the suppression of contact freezing by acid coating on ice nuclei leads to small changes of the cloud microstructure and has no significant effect on the cloud radiative forcing (CRF) at the top of the atmosphere when compared with the effect of the alteration of deposition ice nucleation by acid coating on deposition ice nuclei. There is a negative feedback by which the suppression of contact freezing leads to an increase of the ice crystal nucleation rate by deposition ice nucleation. As a result, the suppression of contact freezing leads to an increase of the cloud ice crystal concentration. Changes in the cloud liquid and ice water contents remain small and the CRF is not significantly modified. The alteration of deposition ice nucleation by acid coating on ice nuclei is dominant over the alteration of contact freezing.