Atmospheric System Research Program

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The goal of the ASR program is to improve the scientific understanding and treatment of clouds, aerosols, and radiative transfer processes in atmospheric models, that in turn are combined with ocean, terrestrial, and ice sheet models to make projections of climate change. ASR conducts research to: determine the properties of, and interactions among, aerosols, clouds, precipitation, and radiation that are most critical to understand in order to improve their representation in climate models; ascertain the roles of atmospheric dynamics, thermodynamic structure, radiation, surface properties, and chemical and microphysical processes in the life cycles of aerosols and clouds, and develop and evaluate models of these processes; and identify and quantify processes along the aerosol-cloud-precipitation continuum that affect the radiative fluxes at the surface and throughout the atmosphere and the radiative and latent heating rate profiles, and improve the ability to accurately model these processes.

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