Abstract
What role does convection play in cloud feedbacks? What role does convective aggregation play in climate? A flurry of recent studies explores “self-aggregation” of moist convection in diverse simulations using explicit convection and interactive radiation. The implications involve upper level dry areas acting as infrared windows—the climate system's “radiator fins.” A positive feedback maintains these: dry columns undergo radiative cooling which drives descent and further drying. If the resulting clumpiness of vapor and cloud fields depends systematically on global temperature, then convective organization could be a climate system feedback. How reconcilable and how relevant are these interesting but idealized studies?.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1029-1033 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs |
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State | Published - Jun 1 2016 |
Keywords
- convective aggregation
- moist convection
- moist static energy
- radiative cooling
- radiative-convective
- water vapor
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Global and Planetary Change
- Environmental Chemistry
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)