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Title: Balanced Cloud Radiative Effects Across a Range of Dynamical Conditions Over the Tropical West Pacific

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); DOE/OSTI
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
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In this work, instantaneous relationships between clouds and large-scale vertical motion are used to study the impact of circulation on the near cancellation of cloud radiative effects that is observed over the tropical west Pacific Ocean. The coverage of deep-convective clouds increases with stronger upward motion, but the proportion of thick, medium, and thin anvil cloud remains nearly constant. Thus, when averaging over scales larger than individual storms, the top-of-atmosphere net radiation is only weakly sensitive to the large-scale flow. The balance in cloud radiative effects is therefore maintained across a wide range of large-scale circulations. The ability of the Community Atmosphere Model Version 5 to reproduce the observed cloud-circulation relationships is investigated. The simulated convective clouds substantially overestimate the proportion of deep and optically thick cloud and underestimate the proportion of anvil cirrus. These results demonstrate that simulating key properties of deep-convective clouds remains challenging for some state-of-the-art climate models.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012580
OSTI ID:
1611884
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 20 Vol. 45; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (2)

Convection and Climate: What Have We Learned from Simple Models and Simplified Settings? journal June 2019
Formation of Tropical Anvil Clouds by Slow Evaporation journal January 2019

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58 GEOSCIENCES
clouds
geology
tropical convection