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- Author or Editor: L. D. Rotstayn x
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Abstract
An updated evaluation of the surface radiation budget in climate models (1994–96 versions; seven datasets available, with and without aerosols) and in two new satellite-based global datasets (with aerosols) is presented. All nine datasets capture the broad mean monthly zonal variations in the flux components and in the net radiation, with maximum differences of some 100 W m−2 occurring in the downwelling fluxes at specific latitudes. Using long-term surface observations, both from land stations and the Pacific warm pool (with typical uncertainties in the annual values varying between ±5 and 20 W m−2), excess net radiation (R N) and downwelling shortwave flux density (S o↓) are found in all datasets, consistent with results from earlier studies [for global land, excesses of 15%–20% (12 W m−2) in R N and about 12% (20 W m−2) in S o↓]. For the nine datasets combined, the spread in annual fluxes is significant: for R N, it is 15 (50) W m−2 over global land (Pacific warm pool) in an observed annual mean of 65 (135) W m−2; for S o↓, it is 25 (60) W m−2 over land (warm pool) in an annual mean of 176 (197) W m−2.
The effects of aerosols are included in three of the authors’ datasets, based on simple aerosol climatologies and assumptions regarding aerosol optical properties. They offer guidance on the broad impact of aerosols on climate, suggesting that the inclusion of aerosols in models would reduce the annual S o↓ by 15–20 W m−2 over land and 5–10 W m−2 over the oceans. Model differences in cloud cover contribute to differences in S o↓ between datasets; for global land, this is most clearly demonstrated through the effects of cloud cover on the surface shortwave cloud forcing. The tendency for most datasets to underestimate cloudiness, particularly over global land, and possibly to underestimate atmospheric water vapor absorption, probably contributes to the excess downwelling shortwave flux at the surface.
Abstract
An updated evaluation of the surface radiation budget in climate models (1994–96 versions; seven datasets available, with and without aerosols) and in two new satellite-based global datasets (with aerosols) is presented. All nine datasets capture the broad mean monthly zonal variations in the flux components and in the net radiation, with maximum differences of some 100 W m−2 occurring in the downwelling fluxes at specific latitudes. Using long-term surface observations, both from land stations and the Pacific warm pool (with typical uncertainties in the annual values varying between ±5 and 20 W m−2), excess net radiation (R N) and downwelling shortwave flux density (S o↓) are found in all datasets, consistent with results from earlier studies [for global land, excesses of 15%–20% (12 W m−2) in R N and about 12% (20 W m−2) in S o↓]. For the nine datasets combined, the spread in annual fluxes is significant: for R N, it is 15 (50) W m−2 over global land (Pacific warm pool) in an observed annual mean of 65 (135) W m−2; for S o↓, it is 25 (60) W m−2 over land (warm pool) in an annual mean of 176 (197) W m−2.
The effects of aerosols are included in three of the authors’ datasets, based on simple aerosol climatologies and assumptions regarding aerosol optical properties. They offer guidance on the broad impact of aerosols on climate, suggesting that the inclusion of aerosols in models would reduce the annual S o↓ by 15–20 W m−2 over land and 5–10 W m−2 over the oceans. Model differences in cloud cover contribute to differences in S o↓ between datasets; for global land, this is most clearly demonstrated through the effects of cloud cover on the surface shortwave cloud forcing. The tendency for most datasets to underestimate cloudiness, particularly over global land, and possibly to underestimate atmospheric water vapor absorption, probably contributes to the excess downwelling shortwave flux at the surface.
Abstract
The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment has identified the poor representation of clouds in atmospheric general circulation models as one of the major impediments for the use of these models in reliably predicting future climate change. One of the most commonly encountered types of cloud system in midlatitudes is that associated with cyclones. The purpose of this study is to investigate the representation of frontal cloud systems in a hierarchy of models in order to identify their relative weaknesses. The hierarchy of models was classified according to the horizontal resolution: cloud-resolving models (5-km resolution), limited-area models (20-km resolution), coarse-grid single-column models (300 km), and an atmospheric general circulation model (>100 km). The models were evaluated using both in situ and satellite data.
The study shows, as expected, that the higher-resolution models give a more complete description of the front and capture many of the observed nonlinear features of the front. At the low resolution, the simulations are unable to capture the front accurately due to the lack of the nonlinear features seen in the high-resolution simulations. The model intercomparison identified problems in applying single-column models to rapidly advecting baroclinic systems. Mesoscale circulations driven by subgrid-scale dynamical, thermodynamical, and microphysical processes are identified as an important feedback mechanism linking the frontal circulations and the cloud field. Finally it is shown that the same techniques used to validate climatological studies with International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project data are also valid for case studies, thereby providing a methodology to generalize the single case studies to climatological studies.
Abstract
The Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment has identified the poor representation of clouds in atmospheric general circulation models as one of the major impediments for the use of these models in reliably predicting future climate change. One of the most commonly encountered types of cloud system in midlatitudes is that associated with cyclones. The purpose of this study is to investigate the representation of frontal cloud systems in a hierarchy of models in order to identify their relative weaknesses. The hierarchy of models was classified according to the horizontal resolution: cloud-resolving models (5-km resolution), limited-area models (20-km resolution), coarse-grid single-column models (300 km), and an atmospheric general circulation model (>100 km). The models were evaluated using both in situ and satellite data.
The study shows, as expected, that the higher-resolution models give a more complete description of the front and capture many of the observed nonlinear features of the front. At the low resolution, the simulations are unable to capture the front accurately due to the lack of the nonlinear features seen in the high-resolution simulations. The model intercomparison identified problems in applying single-column models to rapidly advecting baroclinic systems. Mesoscale circulations driven by subgrid-scale dynamical, thermodynamical, and microphysical processes are identified as an important feedback mechanism linking the frontal circulations and the cloud field. Finally it is shown that the same techniques used to validate climatological studies with International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project data are also valid for case studies, thereby providing a methodology to generalize the single case studies to climatological studies.
Abstract
The effects of declining anthropogenic aerosols in representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) are assessed in four models from phase 5 the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), with a focus on annual, zonal-mean atmospheric temperature structure and zonal winds. For each model, the effect of declining aerosols is diagnosed from the difference between a projection forced by RCP4.5 for 2006–2100 and another that has identical forcing, except that anthropogenic aerosols are fixed at early twenty-first-century levels. The response to declining aerosols is interpreted in terms of the meridional structure of aerosol radiative forcing, which peaks near 40°N and vanishes at the South Pole.
Increasing greenhouse gases cause amplified warming in the tropical upper troposphere and strengthening midlatitude jets in both hemispheres. However, for declining aerosols the vertically averaged tropospheric temperature response peaks near 40°N, rather than in the tropics. This implies that for declining aerosols the tropospheric meridional temperature gradient generally increases in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), but in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) it decreases in the tropics and subtropics. Consistent with thermal wind balance, the NH jet then strengthens on its poleward side and weakens on its equatorward side, whereas the SH jet strengthens more than the NH jet. The asymmetric response of the jets is thus consistent with the meridional structure of aerosol radiative forcing and the associated tropospheric warming: in the NH the latitude of maximum warming is roughly collocated with the jet, whereas in the SH warming is strongest in the tropics and weakest at high latitudes.
Abstract
The effects of declining anthropogenic aerosols in representative concentration pathway 4.5 (RCP4.5) are assessed in four models from phase 5 the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), with a focus on annual, zonal-mean atmospheric temperature structure and zonal winds. For each model, the effect of declining aerosols is diagnosed from the difference between a projection forced by RCP4.5 for 2006–2100 and another that has identical forcing, except that anthropogenic aerosols are fixed at early twenty-first-century levels. The response to declining aerosols is interpreted in terms of the meridional structure of aerosol radiative forcing, which peaks near 40°N and vanishes at the South Pole.
Increasing greenhouse gases cause amplified warming in the tropical upper troposphere and strengthening midlatitude jets in both hemispheres. However, for declining aerosols the vertically averaged tropospheric temperature response peaks near 40°N, rather than in the tropics. This implies that for declining aerosols the tropospheric meridional temperature gradient generally increases in the Southern Hemisphere (SH), but in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) it decreases in the tropics and subtropics. Consistent with thermal wind balance, the NH jet then strengthens on its poleward side and weakens on its equatorward side, whereas the SH jet strengthens more than the NH jet. The asymmetric response of the jets is thus consistent with the meridional structure of aerosol radiative forcing and the associated tropospheric warming: in the NH the latitude of maximum warming is roughly collocated with the jet, whereas in the SH warming is strongest in the tropics and weakest at high latitudes.
