Dependence of marine stratocumulus formation on aerosols

A theoretical assessment is made of the impact of initial cloud condensatio n nuclei concentrations on the formation and stability of marine stratocumu lus. It is found that the initial CCN concentration, through modulation of the drizzle process, has significant impact on the formation and stability of stratocumulus cloud layers for low CCN levels. The low levels examined a re typical of both preindustrial oceanic areas in the North Pacific and the Southern Ocean today.