Document Type

Technical Report

Publication Date

10-2009

Publisher

U.S. Department of Energy

Publisher Location

Washington, DC

First page number:

1

Last page number:

22

Abstract

From a mass-weighted perspective, cirrus clouds exert an enormous influence on the radiative energy budget of the earth?s climate system. Owing to their location in the cold upper troposphere, cirrus can significantly reduce the outgoing longwave radiation while, at the same time, remaining relatively transmissive to solar energy. Thus, cirrus clouds are the only cloud genre that can exert a direct radiative warming influence on the climate system (Ackerman et al. 1988). It is not surprising, therefore, that general circulation models (GCMs) are especially sensitive to the presence of cirrus in the model atmosphere. Lohmann and Roeckner (1995), for instance, show that the climate sensitivity can vary by as much as 40% due to the properties of cirrus varying between transparent and opaque limits. Lohmann and Roeckner (1995) also identify a key feedback by cirrus that is often overlooked; on longer time scales cloud heating in the upper troposphere can act to maintain and modulate the general circulation of the atmosphere through accelerating the subtropical and polar jet streams. Understanding these mechanisms and representing them in models is complicated by the fact that cirrus properties vary over an enormous dynamic range compared to most other clouds.

Controlled Subject

Cirrus clouds; Climatology; Climatic changes; Cloudiness; Clouds; Ecosystem management; Solar heating; Solar radiation; Solar energy; Solar radiation; Troposphere

Disciplines

Atmospheric Sciences | Climate | Meteorology | Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology

File Format

pdf

File Size

1000 KB

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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