Observed correlation between aerosol and cloud base height for low clouds at Baltimore and New York, United States

Abstract

The correlation between aerosol particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) and cloud base height (CBH) of low clouds (CBH lower than 1.5 km a.g.l.) at Baltimore and New York, United States, for an 8 year period (2007-2014) was investigated using information from the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) observations and collocated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) observations. The lifting condensation level (LCL) heights were calculated and compared with the CBH. The monthly average observations show that PM2.5 decreases from 2007 to 2014 while there is no significant trend found for CBH and LCL. The variability of the LCL height agrees well with CBH but LCL height is systematically lower than CBH (~180 m lower). There was a significant negative correlation found between CBH-LCL and PM2.5. All of the cloud cases were separated into polluted and clean conditions based on the distribution of PM2.5 values. The distributions of CBH-LCL in the two groups show more cloud cases with smaller CBH-LCL in polluted conditions than in clean conditions.