Dust radiative forcing and its impact on surface energy budget over West Africa

Abstract Dust is the dominant aerosol type over West Africa (WA), and therefore accurate simulation of dust impact is critical for better prediction of weather and climate change. The dust radiative forcing (DRF) is estimated using two sets of experiments in this study: one without and the other with dust aerosol and its feedbacks with the Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry model (WRF-Chem). Results show that DRF presents a net warming effect at the top-of-atmosphere (TOA) and in the atmosphere (ATM), and cooling at the surface (SFC). The net DRF over WA is estimated to be 9 W/m 2 at the TOA, 23 W/m 2 in the ATM, and − 13 W/m 2 at the SFC. Furthermore, dust-induced a…