Impact of decadal cloud variations on the Earth’s energy budget

Zhou, Chen; Zelinka, Mark D.; Klein, Stephen A.

doi:10.1038/ngeo2828

Title: Impact of decadal cloud variations on the Earth’s energy budget

Journal Article · Mon Oct 31 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Nature Geoscience

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2828· OSTI ID:1336997

Zhou, Chen ^[1];

^[1];

^[1]

Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Cloud Processes Research Group

Feedbacks of clouds on climate change strongly influence the magnitude of global warming. Cloud feedbacks, in turn, depend on the spatial patterns of surface warming, which vary on decadal timescales. Therefore, the magnitude of the decadal cloud feedback could deviate from the long-term cloud feedback. We present climate model simulations to show that the global mean cloud feedback in response to decadal temperature fluctuations varies dramatically due to time variations in the spatial pattern of sea surface temperature. Here, we find that cloud anomalies associated with these patterns significantly modify the Earth’s energy budget. Specifically, the decadal cloud feedback between the 1980s and 2000s is substantially more negative than the long-term cloud feedback. This is a result of cooling in tropical regions where air descends, relative to warming in tropical ascent regions, which strengthens low-level atmospheric stability. Under these conditions, low-level cloud cover and its reflection of solar radiation increase, despite an increase in global mean surface temperature. Our results suggest that sea surface temperature pattern-induced low cloud anomalies could have contributed to the period of reduced warming between 1998 and 2013, and o er a physical explanation of why climate sensitivities estimated from recently observed trends are probably biased low.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-07NA27344

OSTI ID:: 1336997

Report Number(s):: LLNL-JRNL-692260

Journal Information:: Nature Geoscience, Vol. 9, Issue 12; ISSN 1752-0894

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 181 works

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