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The representation of aerosol activation into cloud droplets in climate models is important for accurate understanding of aerosol radiative impacts on the Arctic climate, but it remains highly uncertain. Here we show that the uncertainty range of subgrid vertical velocity (SVV) and maximum supersaturation (SSmax) in aerosol activation produces fourfold to fivefold differences in the direct radiative effect of black carbon (BC) in the Arctic (0.091–0.40 W m−2) because SVV and SSmax determine the activated fraction and wet removal efficiency of aerosols. Aerosols are particularly sensitive to SVV in remote regions but not near their sources because many aerosols near sources are not yet influenced by wet removal processes. Our results demonstrate that SVV treatment is a major source of uncertainty in Arctic aerosol simulations and may be key for reducing the large discrepancies among global models in estimates of BC and its radiative effects in the Arctic. Plain Language Summary: Black carbon aerosol, emitted mainly in midlatitude regions by combustion of fossil fuel and biomass, is transported to the Arctic and deposited on snow and ice surfaces, where it contributes to Arctic heating. However, estimates of its importance in Arctic warming have large uncertainties. Because global climate models usually use a coarse horizontal grid spacing, they rely on many assumptions to represent the small‐scale atmospheric processes within clouds. This study uses a global climate model to investigate the importance of one of these assumptions, the treatment of "subgrid vertical velocity," to aerosol simulations. We show that varying the subgrid vertical velocity within its uncertainty range changes the calculated heating effect of black carbon in the Arctic by as much as five times. Our results underscore the importance of treating subgrid vertical velocity treatment accurately in estimating how much black carbon from midlatitudes is warming the Arctic. Key Points: The importance of subgrid vertical velocity in activation to aerosol burden and radiative effects was investigated by using a global modelThe current uncertainty in subgrid vertical velocity produces fivefold differences in the radiative effect of black carbon in the ArcticThe subgrid treatment of updraft is important in estimating the long‐range transport of black carbon and its impacts on Arctic climate [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black carbon (BC) aerosol is of great importance not only for its strong potential in heating air and impacts on cloud, but also because of its hazards to human health. Wet deposition is regarded as the main sink of BC, constraining its lifetime and thus its impact on the environment and climate. However, substantial controversial and ambiguous issues in the wet scavenging processes of BC are apparent in current studies. Despite of its significance, there are only a small number of field studies that have investigated the incorporation of BC-containing particles into cloud droplets and influencing factors, in particular, the in-cloud scavenging, because it was simplicitly considered in many studies (as part of total wet scavenging). The mass scavenging efficiencies (MSEs) of BC were observed to be varied over the world, and the influencing factors were attributed to physical and chemical properties (e.g., size and chemical compositions) and meteorological conditions (cloud water content, temperature, etc.). In this review, we summarized the MSEs and potential factors that influence the in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging of BC. In general, MSEs of BC are lower at low-altitude regions (urban, suburban, and rural sites) and increase with the rising altitude, which serves as additional evidence that atmospheric aging plays an important role in the chemical modification of BC. Herein, higher altitude sites are more representative of free-tropospheric conditions, where BC is usually more aged. Despite of increasing knowledge of BC–cloud interaction, there are still challenges that need to be addressed to gain a better understanding of the wet scavenging of BC. We recommend that more comprehensive methods should be further estimated to obtain high time-resolved scavenging efficiency (SE) of BC, and to distinguish the impact of in-cloud and below-cloud scavenging on BC mass concentration, which is expected to be useful for constraining the gap between field observation and modeling simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]