Convective clouds in tropical areas can be sensitive to the atmospheric sulfate loading, particularly during enhanced sulfate episodes. This assertion is supported by simulations with a high resolution limited area non-hydrostatic model (LAN) employing a detailed sulfate-cloud microphysics scheme, applied to estimate the effects of sulfate on convective clouds in a case study from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). Results show that a change in sulfate loading for scenarios using the minimum to the maximum observed values produces a change in the average net flux of shortwave radiation above clouds. This time-average change was estimated between -1.1 and -0.3 Wm-2 over the integration domain. ¿ 1998 American Geophysical Union