Abstract
Purpose of Review: We review our understanding of mechanisms underlying the response of (sub)tropical clouds to global warming, highlight mechanisms that challenge our understanding, and discuss simulation strategies that tackle them. Recent Findings: Turbulence-resolving models and emergent constraints provide probable evidence, supported by theoretical understanding, that the cooling cloud radiative effect (CRE) of low clouds weakens with warming: a positive low-cloud feedback. Nevertheless, an uncertainty in the feedback remains. Climate models may not adequately represent changing SST and circulation patterns, which determine future cloud-controlling factors and how these couple to clouds. Furthermore, we do not understand what mesoscale organization implies for the CRE, and how moisture-radiation interactions, horizontal advection, and the profile of wind regulate low cloud, in our current and in our warmer climate. Summary: Clouds in nature are more complex than the idealized cloud types that have informed our understanding of the cloud feedback. Remaining major uncertainties are the coupling of clouds to large-scale circulations and to the ocean, and mesoscale aggregation of clouds.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 80-94 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Current Climate Change Reports |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2019 |
Keywords
- Atmosphere-ocean coupling
- Cloud-circulation coupling
- Emergent constraints
- Low-cloud feedback
- Mesoscale aggregation
- Moisture-radiation interactions
- Turbulence-resolving models