Clouds, radiation, and atmospheric circulation in the present-day climate and under climate change
File(s)
Published version
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
By interacting with radiation, clouds modulate the flow of energy through the Earth system, the circulation of the atmosphere, and regional climate. We review the impact of cloud‐radiation interactions for the atmospheric circulation in the present‐day climate, its internal variability and its response to climate change. After summarizing cloud‐controlling factors and cloud‐radiative effects, we clarify the scope and limits of the Clouds On‐Off Klimate Model Intercomparison Experiment (COOKIE) and cloud‐locking modeling methods. COOKIE showed that the presence of cloud‐radiative effects shapes the circulation in the present‐day climate in many important ways, including the width of the tropical rain belts and the position of the extratropical storm tracks. Cloud locking, in contrast, identified how clouds affect internal variability and the circulation response to global warming. This includes strong, but model‐dependent, shortwave and longwave cloud impacts on the El‐Nino Southern Oscillation, and the finding that most of the poleward circulation expansion in response to global warming can be attributed to radiative changes in clouds. We highlight the circulation impact of shortwave changes from low‐level clouds and longwave changes from rising high‐level clouds, and the contribution of these cloud changes to model differences in the circulation response to global warming. The review in particular draws attention to the role of cloud‐radiative heating within the atmosphere. We close by raising some open questions which, among others, concern the need for studying the cloud impact on regional scales and opportunities created by the next generation of global storm‐resolving models.
Date Issued
2021-03-01
Date Acceptance
2020-10-15
Citation
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: WIREs Climate Change, 2021, 12 (2), pp.1-22
ISSN
1757-7780
Publisher
Wiley
Start Page
1
End Page
22
Journal / Book Title
Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: WIREs Climate Change
Volume
12
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Authors. WIREs Climate Change published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000592122700001&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
NE/T006250/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Physical Sciences
Environmental Studies
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
circulation
climate and climate change
clouds
global models
radiation
INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE
EDDY-DRIVEN JET
GENERAL-CIRCULATION
SOUTHERN-OCEAN
INSTANTANEOUS LINKAGES
VERTICAL STRUCTURE
FEEDBACK PROCESSES
EXTRATROPICAL JET
POLEWARD SHIFT
HADLEY-CELL
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e694
Date Publish Online
2020-11-25