skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A Refined Understanding of the Ice Cloud Longwave Scattering Effects in Climate Model

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023MS003810· OSTI ID:2007440
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering the University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA
  2. Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering the University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI USA, Now at Research Center for Environmental Changes Academia Sinica Taipei Taiwan
  3. Environmental &, Climate Sciences Department Brookhaven National Laboratory New York State NY USA
  4. Department of Atmospheric Sciences Texas A&,M University College Station TX USA
+ Show Author Affiliations

Abstract Because longwave (LW) absorption by greenhouse gases and clouds is more significant than the LW scattering effect by clouds, most climate models neglect cloud LW scattering to save computational costs. Ignoring cloud LW scattering directly overestimates outgoing longwave radiation (OLR). This study included ice‐cloud LW scattering treatment in the Exascale Energy Earth System Model (E3SM) version 2 and ran fully‐coupled simulations, prescribed sea surface temperature simulations, and offline radiative transfer calculations to comprehensively assess the impact of ice‐cloud LW scattering on global climate simulation. The instantaneous effect due to ice‐cloud LW scattering reduces the OLR by ∼1 W/m 2 on the global average and 2 W/m 2 on the tropical average. Tropospheric warming and high cloud amount reduction act to partially compensate for such instantaneous OLR reduction caused by the inclusion of LW scattering. When the simulation reaches the equilibrium, the surface warms by 0.66 K on average with respect to the simulation without LW scattering, with the Arctic surface temperature differences more than twice as large as that of the global mean. The impact of including LW scattering on the simulated climate change in response to 4 × CO 2 is also assessed. While including the cloud LW scattering does not significantly modify radiative forcing and total radiative feedback under such a scenario, it results in a 10% more positive cloud feedback.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
DE‐SC0019278; DE‐SC0022117; SC0012704; SC0019278; SC0022117; 80NSSC22K1433
OSTI ID:
2007440
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2203788; OSTI ID: 2204129
Report Number(s):
BNL-224915-2023-JAAM; e2023MS003810
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Journal Name: Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems Vol. 15 Journal Issue: 10; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (38)

Cloud scattering impact on thermal radiative transfer and global longwave radiation journal December 2019
Sensitivity of a global climate model to an increase of CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere journal January 1980
Assessment of multiple scattering and horizontal inhomogeneity in IR radiative transfer calculations of observed thin cirrus clouds: THIN CIRRUS IR SCATTERING/INHOMOGENEITY journal July 2003
A Comprehensive Radiation Scheme for Numerical Weather Prediction Models with Potential Applications in Climate Simulations journal February 1992
xarray software January 2023
The DOE E3SM Model Version 2: Overview of the Physical Model and Initial Model Evaluation journal December 2022
Understanding Rapid Adjustments to Diverse Forcing Agents journal November 2018
The DOE E3SM Coupled Model Version 1: Overview and Evaluation at Standard Resolution journal July 2019
The MODIS Cloud Optical and Microphysical Products: Collection 6 Updates and Examples From Terra and Aqua journal January 2017
matplotlib/matplotlib: REL: v3.6.3 software January 2023
Assessing the accuracy and efficiency of longwave radiative transfer models involving scattering effect with cloud optical property parameterizations journal January 2020
Polar amplification of climate change in coupled models journal September 2003
On the pattern of CO 2 radiative forcing and poleward energy transport : CO journal October 2017
Overview of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) experimental design and organization journal January 2016
ERA-interim reanalysis based radiative kernels dataset January 2022
Radiative Properties of Cirrus Clouds in the Infrared Region journal February 1980
DYAMOND: the DYnamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Domains journal September 2019
Polar amplification dominated by local forcing and feedbacks journal November 2018
Seasonal Dependent Impact of Ice Cloud Longwave Scattering on the Polar Climate journal December 2020
An estimate of the global impact of multiple scattering by clouds on outgoing long-wave radiation journal April 2006
An Assessment of Earth's Climate Sensitivity Using Multiple Lines of Evidence journal September 2020
Cloud Feedbacks in the Climate System: A Critical Review journal January 2005
Parameterization for Cloud Longwave Scattering for Use in Atmospheric Models journal January 1999
Multiple Scattering Parameterization in Thermal Infrared Radiative Transfer journal December 1997
The Effects of Doubling the CO 2 Concentration on the climate of a General Circulation Model journal January 1975
A new method for diagnosing radiative forcing and climate sensitivity journal January 2004
On the Nature of the Arctic's Positive Lapse‐Rate Feedback journal January 2021
cxfan1997/E3SM: UMRad E3SMv2 First Release software January 2023
Present-Day Atmospheric Simulations Using GISS ModelE: Comparison to In Situ, Satellite, and Reanalysis Data journal January 2006
Computing and Partitioning Cloud Feedbacks Using Cloud Property Histograms. Part I: Cloud Radiative Kernels journal June 2012
Impact of Multiple Scattering on Longwave Radiative Transfer Involving Clouds journal December 2017
Absorption Approximation with Scattering Effect for Infrared Radiation journal September 2000
Computing and Partitioning Cloud Feedbacks Using Cloud Property Histograms. Part II: Attribution to Changes in Cloud Amount, Altitude, and Optical Depth journal June 2012
Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment journal January 2007
Cloud Longwave Scattering Effect and Its Impact on Climate Simulation journal April 2018
xarray: N-D labeled Arrays and Datasets in Python journal April 2017
Longwave 3D Benchmarks for Inhomogeneous Clouds and Comparisons with Approximate Methods journal April 2011
A Review of Ice Cloud Optical Property Models for Passive Satellite Remote Sensing journal December 2018

Similar Records

Major improvements on the longwave radiative interactions between surface and clouds in the Polar Regions in atmospheric global circulation model (GCM). Final Project Report
Technical Report · Tue Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2018 · OSTI ID:2007440
Impact of Multiple Scattering on Longwave Radiative Transfer Involving Clouds
Journal Article · Fri Dec 29 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems · OSTI ID:2007440
+4 more
Seasonal Dependent Impact of Ice Cloud Longwave Scattering on the Polar Climate
Journal Article · Mon Nov 23 00:00:00 EST 2020 · Geophysical Research Letters · OSTI ID:2007440
+2 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
cloud longwave scattering
cloud-radiation interaction
radiative forcing and feedback
E3SM
climate modeling