Aquaplanets, Climate Sensitivity, and Low Clouds Export

@article{Medeiros:2008, abstract = {Cloud effects have repeatedly been pointed out as the leading source of uncertainty in projections of future climate, yet clouds remain poorly understood and simulated in climate models. Aquaplanets provide a simplified framework for comparing and understanding cloud effects, and how they are partitioned as a function of regime, in large-scale models. This work uses two climate models to demonstrate that aquaplanets can successfully predict a climate model\&\#8217;s sensitivity to an idealized climate change. For both models, aquaplanet climate sensitivity is similar to that of the realistic configuration. Tropical low clouds appear to play a leading role in determining the sensitivity. Regions of large-scale subsidence, which cover much of the tropics, are most directly responsible for the differences between the models. Although cloud effects and climate sensitivity are similar for aquaplanets and realistic configurations, the aquaplanets lack persistent stratocumulus in the tropical atmosphere. This, and an additional analysis of the cloud response in the realistically configured simulations, suggests the representation of shallow (trade wind) cumulus convection, which is ubiquitous in the tropics, is largely responsible for differences in the simulated climate sensitivity of these two models.}, author = {Medeiros, Brian and Stevens, Bjorn and Held, Isaac M. and Zhao, Ming and Williamson, David L. and Olson, Jerry G. and Bretherton, Christopher S.}, citeulike-article-id = {3992139}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI1995.1}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1175/2008JCLI1995.1}, journal = {Journal of Climate}, keywords = {aquaplanet, climatesensitivity, cloudfeedback}, month = {October}, number = {19}, pages = {4974--4991}, posted-at = {2009-02-01 20:29:26}, priority = {0}, title = {Aquaplanets, Climate Sensitivity, and Low Clouds}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI1995.1}, volume = {21}, year = {2008} }

TY - JOUR ID - Medeiros:2008 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3992139 N2 - Cloud effects have repeatedly been pointed out as the leading source of uncertainty in projections of future climate, yet clouds remain poorly understood and simulated in climate models. Aquaplanets provide a simplified framework for comparing and understanding cloud effects, and how they are partitioned as a function of regime, in large-scale models. This work uses two climate models to demonstrate that aquaplanets can successfully predict a climate model’s sensitivity to an idealized climate change. For both models, aquaplanet climate sensitivity is similar to that of the realistic configuration. Tropical low clouds appear to play a leading role in determining the sensitivity. Regions of large-scale subsidence, which cover much of the tropics, are most directly responsible for the differences between the models. Although cloud effects and climate sensitivity are similar for aquaplanets and realistic configurations, the aquaplanets lack persistent stratocumulus in the tropical atmosphere. This, and an additional analysis of the cloud response in the realistically configured simulations, suggests the representation of shallow (trade wind) cumulus convection, which is ubiquitous in the tropics, is largely responsible for differences in the simulated climate sensitivity of these two models. IS - 19 JF - Journal of Climate EP - 4991 TI - Aquaplanets, Climate Sensitivity, and Low Clouds VL - 21 SP - 4974 KW - aquaplanet KW - climatesensitivity KW - cloudfeedback AU - Medeiros, Brian AU - Stevens, Bjorn AU - Held, Isaac AU - Zhao, Ming AU - Williamson, David AU - Olson, Jerry AU - Bretherton, Christopher PY - 2008/10/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI1995.1 ER -