A Simple Moist Tropical Atmosphere Model: The Role of Cloud Radiative Forcing

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 2086-2092 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baijun Tian ◽  
V. Ramanathan
2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 3331-3345 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Ravi Kiran ◽  
M. Rajeevan ◽  
H. Gadhavi ◽  
S. Vijaya Bhaskara Rao ◽  
A. Jayaraman

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 701-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Rondanelli ◽  
R. S. Lindzen

Abstract. Goldblatt and Zahnle (2011) raise a number of issues related to the possibility that cirrus clouds can provide a solution to the faint young sun paradox. Here, we argue that: (1) climates having a lower than present mean surface temperature cannot be discarded as solutions to the faint young sun paradox, (2) the detrainment from deep convective clouds in the tropics is a well-established physical mechanism for the formation of high clouds that have a positive radiative forcing (even if the possible role of these clouds as a negative climate feedback remains controversial) and (3) even if some cloud properties are not mutually consistent with observations in radiative transfer parameterizations, the most relevant consistency (for the purpose of hypothesis testing) is with observations of the cloud radiative forcing. Therefore, we maintain that cirrus clouds, as observed in the current climate and covering a large region of the tropics, can provide a solution to the faint young sun paradox, or at least ease the amount of CO2 or other greenhouse substances needed to provide temperatures above freezing during the Archean.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (24) ◽  
pp. 9857-9872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei He ◽  
Derek J. Posselt

Abstract This study advances the understanding of how parameterized physical processes affect the development of tropical cyclones (TCs) in the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) using the Reed–Jablonowski TC test case. It examines the impact of changes in 24 parameters across multiple physical parameterization schemes that represent convection, turbulence, precipitation, and cloud processes. The one-at-a-time (OAT) sensitivity analysis method quantifies the relative influence of each parameter on TC simulations and identifies which parameters affect six different TC characteristics: intensity, precipitation, longwave cloud radiative forcing (LWCF), shortwave cloud radiative forcing (SWCF), cloud liquid water path (LWP), and ice water path (IWP). It is shown that TC intensity is mainly sensitive to the parcel fractional mass entrainment rate (dmpdz) in deep convection. A decrease in this parameter can lead to a change in simulated intensity from a tropical depression to a category-4 storm. Precipitation and SWCF are strongly affected by three parameters in deep convection: tau (time scale for consumption rate of convective available potential energy), dmpdz, and C0_ocn (precipitation coefficient). Changes in physical parameters generally do not affect LWCF much. In contrast, LWP and IWP are very sensitive to changes in C0_ocn. The changes can be as large as 10 (5) times the control mean value for LWP (IWP). Further examination of the response functions for the subset of most sensitive parameters reveals nonlinear relationships between parameters and most output variables, suggesting that linear perturbation analysis may produce misleading results when applied to strongly nonlinear systems.


2013 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiying Chen ◽  
Xin-Zhong Liang ◽  
Min Xu ◽  
Tiejun Ling ◽  
Julian X.L. Wang

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 6049-6062 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Yue ◽  
H. Liao ◽  
H. J. Wang ◽  
S. L. Li ◽  
J. P. Tang

Abstract. Mineral dust aerosol can be transported over the nearby oceans and influence the energy balance at the sea surface. The role of dust-induced sea surface temperature (SST) responses in simulations of the climatic effect of dust is examined by using a general circulation model with online simulation of mineral dust and a coupled mixed-layer ocean model. Both the longwave and shortwave radiative effects of mineral dust aerosol are considered in climate simulations. The SST responses are found to be very influential on simulated dust-induced climate change, especially when climate simulations consider the two-way dust-climate coupling to account for the feedbacks. With prescribed SSTs and dust concentrations, we obtain an increase of 0.02 K in the global and annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) in response to dust radiative effects. In contrast, when SSTs are allowed to respond to radiative forcing of dust in the presence of the dust cycle-climate interactions, we obtain a global and annual mean cooling of 0.09 K in SAT by dust. The extra cooling simulated with the SST responses can be attributed to the following two factors: (1) The negative net (shortwave plus longwave) radiative forcing of dust at the surface reduces SST, which decreases latent heat fluxes and upward transport of water vapor, resulting in less warming in the atmosphere; (2) The positive feedback between SST responses and dust cycle. The dust-induced reductions in SST lead to reductions in precipitation (or wet deposition of dust) and hence increase the global burden of small dust particles. These small particles have strong scattering effects, which enhance the dust cooling at the surface and further reduce SSTs.


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