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Title: A Regime-Oriented Approach to Observationally Constraining Extratropical Shortwave Cloud Feedbacks

Journal Article · · Journal of Climate
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5]
  1. Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom); Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
  2. Univ. of Leeds (United Kingdom); Met Office, Exeter (United Kingdom)
  3. Met Office, Exeter (United Kingdom)
  4. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); NASA Goddard Inst. for Space Studies (GISS), New York, NY (United States)
  5. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The extratropical shortwave (SW) cloud feedback is primarily due to increases in extratropical liquid cloud extent and optical depth. Here, we examine the response of extratropical (35°–75°) marine cloud liquid water path (LWP) to a uniform 4-K increase in sea surface temperature (SST) in global climate models (GCMs) from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) and variants of the HadGEM3-GC3.1 GCM. Compositing is used to partition data into periods inside and out of cyclones. The response of extratropical LWP to a uniform SST increase and associated atmospheric response varies substantially among GCMs, but the sensitivity of LWP to cloud controlling factors (CCFs) is qualitatively similar. When all other predictors are held constant, increasing moisture flux drives an increase in LWP. Increasing SST, holding all other predictors fixed, leads to a decrease in LWP. The combinations of these changes lead to LWP, and by extension reflected SW, increasing with warming in both hemispheres. Observations predict an increase in reflected SW over oceans of 0.8–1.6 W m-2 per kelvin SST increase (35°–75°N) and 1.2–1.9 W m-2 per kelvin SST increase (35°–75°S). This increase in reflected SW is mainly due to increased moisture convergence into cyclones because of increasing available moisture. The efficiency at which converging moisture is converted into precipitation determines the amount of liquid cloud. Thus, cyclone precipitation processes are critical to constraining extratropical cloud feedbacks

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); European Union Horizon 2020; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; 641727; NNX17AF46G; 80NSSC18K1030
OSTI ID:
1762839
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-800282; 1003666
Journal Information:
Journal of Climate, Vol. 33, Issue 23; ISSN 0894-8755
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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58 GEOSCIENCES
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