Observed Sensitivity of Low-Cloud Radiative Effects to Meteorological Perturbations over the Global Oceans
Abstract
Understanding how marine low clouds and their radiative effects respond to changing meteorological conditions is crucial to constrain low-cloud feedbacks to greenhouse warming and internal climate variability. In this paper, we use observations to quantify the low-cloud radiative response to meteorological perturbations over the global oceans to shed light on physical processes governing low-cloud and planetary radiation budget variability in different climate regimes. We assess the independent effect of perturbations in sea surface temperature, estimated inversion strength, horizontal surface temperature advection, 700-hPa relative humidity, 700-hPa vertical velocity, and near-surface wind speed. Stronger inversions and stronger cold advection greatly enhance low-level cloudiness and planetary albedo in eastern ocean stratocumulus and midlatitude regimes. Warming of the sea surface drives pronounced reductions of eastern ocean stratocumulus cloud amount and optical depth, and hence reflectivity, but has a weaker and more variable impact on low clouds in the tropics and middle latitudes. By reducing entrainment drying, higher free-tropospheric relative humidity enhances low-level cloudiness. At low latitudes, where cold advection destabilizes the boundary layer, stronger winds enhance low-level cloudiness; by contrast, wind speed variations have weak influence at midlatitudes where warm advection frequently stabilizes the marine boundary layer, thus inhibiting vertical mixing. These observational constraintsmore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Scripps Inst. of Oceanography
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA (United States)
- NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1658699
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-JRNL-800389
Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755; 1003966
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344; 80NSSC18K1020
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Climate
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 33; Journal Issue: 18; Journal ID: ISSN 0894-8755
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Scott, Ryan C., Myers, Timothy A., Norris, Joel R., Zelinka, Mark D., Klein, Stephen A., Sun, Moguo, and Doelling, David R. Observed Sensitivity of Low-Cloud Radiative Effects to Meteorological Perturbations over the Global Oceans. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1175/jcli-d-19-1028.1.
Scott, Ryan C., Myers, Timothy A., Norris, Joel R., Zelinka, Mark D., Klein, Stephen A., Sun, Moguo, & Doelling, David R. Observed Sensitivity of Low-Cloud Radiative Effects to Meteorological Perturbations over the Global Oceans. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-19-1028.1
Scott, Ryan C., Myers, Timothy A., Norris, Joel R., Zelinka, Mark D., Klein, Stephen A., Sun, Moguo, and Doelling, David R. Wed .
"Observed Sensitivity of Low-Cloud Radiative Effects to Meteorological Perturbations over the Global Oceans". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-19-1028.1. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1658699.
@article{osti_1658699,
title = {Observed Sensitivity of Low-Cloud Radiative Effects to Meteorological Perturbations over the Global Oceans},
author = {Scott, Ryan C. and Myers, Timothy A. and Norris, Joel R. and Zelinka, Mark D. and Klein, Stephen A. and Sun, Moguo and Doelling, David R.},
abstractNote = {Understanding how marine low clouds and their radiative effects respond to changing meteorological conditions is crucial to constrain low-cloud feedbacks to greenhouse warming and internal climate variability. In this paper, we use observations to quantify the low-cloud radiative response to meteorological perturbations over the global oceans to shed light on physical processes governing low-cloud and planetary radiation budget variability in different climate regimes. We assess the independent effect of perturbations in sea surface temperature, estimated inversion strength, horizontal surface temperature advection, 700-hPa relative humidity, 700-hPa vertical velocity, and near-surface wind speed. Stronger inversions and stronger cold advection greatly enhance low-level cloudiness and planetary albedo in eastern ocean stratocumulus and midlatitude regimes. Warming of the sea surface drives pronounced reductions of eastern ocean stratocumulus cloud amount and optical depth, and hence reflectivity, but has a weaker and more variable impact on low clouds in the tropics and middle latitudes. By reducing entrainment drying, higher free-tropospheric relative humidity enhances low-level cloudiness. At low latitudes, where cold advection destabilizes the boundary layer, stronger winds enhance low-level cloudiness; by contrast, wind speed variations have weak influence at midlatitudes where warm advection frequently stabilizes the marine boundary layer, thus inhibiting vertical mixing. These observational constraints provide a framework for understanding and evaluating marine low-cloud feedbacks and their simulation by models.},
doi = {10.1175/jcli-d-19-1028.1},
journal = {Journal of Climate},
number = 18,
volume = 33,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Wed Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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