Magnitude and timescale of liquid water path adjustment to cloud droplet number concentration for nocturnal non-precipitating marine stratocumulus

Aerosol perturbation simulations are performed for 22 sets of environmental conditions using large-eddy simulation (LES) to quantify the slope of the LWP adjustment to droplet number concentration (Nd) for non-precipitating marine stratocumuli during the nighttime. We show that the adjustment slope is more negative for low Nd (yet still non-precipitating) conditions and becomes less negative with increasing Nd. The median slope is between -0.4 and -0.1 for the Nd range examined. The signature of environmental conditions on the slope can be detected. A detailed budget analysis is performed to quantify the rate of changes of LWP and the slope. Even though the entrainment fluxes are similar for perturbed and unperturbed cases at the end of the simulations, the signatures in entrainment efficiency and boundary layer turbulence persist. Sensitivity simulations are performed to examine the impacts of various factors on the results.