The role of aerosol-radiation interaction in the meteorology prediction at the weather scale

The current capabilities of the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to simulate aerosol-radiation interaction (ARI) impacts on weather prediction are still rarely considered compared with climate models. Here, the NWP model GRAPES_CUACE is used to evaluate the role of the ARI in meteorology prediction at the weather scale in China. The results show that the online calculation of ARI in the model can extensively improve the meteorology prediction accuracy involving temperature, wind, and pressure at most vertical levels in relatively clean, light, and heavy pollution stages. This improvement significantly occurs in the meteorology factors below 950 hPa prediction such as temperature at 2 m, 1000, and 950 hPa, and mean sea level pressure, particularly in heavy pollution areas and stages. Unlike temperature, the improvement of ARI in the predicted wind at the height of the boundary layer is more significant than near-surface. However, this improvement declines when the low-cloud exists.