Response of Upper Clouds in Global Warming Experiments Obtained Using a Global Nonhydrostatic Model with Explicit Cloud Processes

AbstractUsing a global nonhydrostatic model with explicit cloud processes, upper-cloud changes are investigated by comparing the present climate condition under the perpetual July setting and the global warming condition, in which the sea surface temperature (SST) is raised by 2°. The sensitivity of the upper-cloud cover and the ice water path (IWP) are investigated through a set of experiments. The responses of convective mass flux and convective areas are also examined, together with those of the large-scale subsidence and relative humidity in the subtropics. The responses of the IWP and the upper-cloud cover are found to be opposite; that is, as the SST increases, the IWP averaged over the tropics decreases, whereas the upper-cloud cover in the tropics increases. To clarify the IWP response, a simple conceptual model is constructed. The model consists of three columns of deep convective core, anvil, and environmental subsidence regions. The vertical profiles of hydrometers are predicted with cloud micr...

[1]  Hiroaki Miura,et al.  Evaluations of cloud properties of global and local cloud system resolving models using CALIPSO and CloudSat simulators , 2010 .

[2]  Hiroaki Miura,et al.  A Madden-Julian Oscillation Event Realistically Simulated by a Global Cloud-Resolving Model , 2007, Science.

[3]  S. Klein,et al.  Validation and Sensitivities of Frontal Clouds Simulated by the ECMWF Model , 1999 .

[4]  W. Grabowski.  Impact of Cloud Microphysics on Convective-Radiative Quasi Equilibrium Revealed by Cloud-Resolving Convection Parameterization , 2003 .

[5]  B. Soden,et al.  An Assessment of Climate Feedbacks in Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Models , 2006 .

[6]  M. Yao,et al.  Cumulus Microphysics and Climate Sensitivity , 2005 .

[7]  John F. B. Mitchell,et al.  Intercomparison and interpretation of climate feedback processes in 19 atmospheric general circulation models , 1990 .

[8]  V. Ramanathan,et al.  Thermodynamic regulation of ocean warming by cirrus clouds deduced from observations of the 1987 El Niño , 1991, Nature.

[9]  R. Lindzen,et al.  Does The Earth Have an Adaptive Infrared Iris , 2013 .

[10]  Dong L. Wu,et al.  Cloud ice: A climate model challenge with signs and expectations of progress , 2007 .

[11]  Johannes Quaas,et al.  Global mean cloud feedbacks in idealized climate change experiments , 2006 .

[12]  I. Roulstone,et al.  Royal Meteorological Society discussion meeting on ‘New directions in mathematical modelling in numerical weather prediction’, 16th February, 2000. , 2000 .

[13]  Roger K. Smith.  The physics and parameterization of moist atmospheric convection , 1997 .

[14]  H. Laurent,et al.  The Convective System Area Expansion over Amazonia and Its Relationships with Convective System Life Duration and High-Level Wind Divergence , 2004 .

[15]  G. Mellor,et al.  A Hierarchy of Turbulence Closure Models for Planetary Boundary Layers. , 1974 .

[16]  Mark D. Zelinka,et al.  Why is longwave cloud feedback positive , 2010 .

[17]  W. Collins,et al.  Long-Term Behavior of Cloud Systems in TOGA COARE and Their Interactions with Radiative and Surface Processes. Part II: Effects of Ice Microphysics on Cloud–Radiation Interaction , 1999 .

[18]  G. Vecchi,et al.  Global Warming and the Weakening of the Tropical Circulation , 2007 .

[19]  Masaki Satoh,et al.  Nonhydrostatic icosahedral atmospheric model (NICAM) for global cloud resolving simulations , 2008, J. Comput. Phys..

[20]  Hiroaki Miura,et al.  Comparison of high-level clouds represented in a global cloud system–resolving model with CALIPSO/CloudSat and geostationary satellite observations , 2010 .

[21]  Richard Neale,et al.  A standard test for AGCMs including their physical parametrizations: I: the proposal , 2000 .

[22]  Mamoru Yamamoto,et al.  Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR): System description and first results , 2003 .

[23]  W. Rossow,et al.  Advances in understanding clouds from ISCCP , 1999 .

[24]  H. Niino,et al.  An Improved Mellor–Yamada Level-3 Model with Condensation Physics: Its Design and Verification , 2004 .

[25]  Hiroaki Miura,et al.  A climate sensitivity test using a global cloud resolving model under an aqua planet condition , 2005 .

[26]  Hirofumi Tomita,et al.  A new dynamical framework of nonhydrostatic global model using the icosahedral grid , 2004 .

[27]  B. Soden,et al.  The Sensitivity of the Tropical-Mean Radiation Budget , 2005 .

[28]  Y. Tsushima,et al.  Climatology of a nonhydrostatic global model with explicit cloud processes , 2007 .

[29]  Y. Tsushima,et al.  Relative humidity changes in a warmer climate , 2010 .

[30]  Y. Hayashi,et al.  Simple cumulus models in one-dimensional radiative convective equilibrium problems , 1992 .

[31]  George C. Craig,et al.  Sensitivity of Tropical Convection to Sea Surface Temperature in the Absence of Large-Scale Flow , 1999 .

[32]  Dennis L. Hartmann,et al.  Testing the Fixed Anvil Temperature Hypothesis in a Cloud-Resolving Model , 2007 .

[33]  M. Satoh,et al.  Statistics on High-Cloud Areas and Their Sensitivities to Cloud Microphysics Using Single-Cloud Experiments , 2009 .

[34]  Anthony D. Del Genio,et al.  Climatic Properties of Tropical Precipitating Convection under Varying Environmental Conditions , 2002 .

[35]  S. Bony,et al.  Marine boundary layer clouds at the heart of tropical cloud feedback uncertainties in climate models , 2005 .

[36]  W. Grabowski.  Toward Cloud Resolving Modeling of Large-Scale Tropical Circulations: A Simple Cloud Microphysics Parameterization , 1998 .

[37]  Christopher S. Bretherton,et al.  Climate sensitivity and cloud response of a GCM with a superparameterization , 2006 .

[38]  B. Soden,et al.  Robust Responses of the Hydrological Cycle to Global Warming , 2006 .

[39]  W. Grabowski.  Cloud Microphysics and the Tropical Climate: Cloud-Resolving Model Perspective , 2000 .

[40]  Hiroaki Miura,et al.  Characteristics of Cloud Size of Deep Convection Simulated by a Global Cloud Resolving Model over the Western Tropical Pacific( The International Workshop on High-Resolution and Cloud Modeling, 2006) , 2008 .

[41]  R. Lindzen,et al.  Observed variations in convective precipitation fraction and stratiform area with sea surface temperature , 2008 .

[42]  Hirohiko Masunaga,et al.  A joint satellite and global cloud‐resolving model analysis of a Madden‐Julian Oscillation event: Model diagnosis , 2008 .

[43]  Y. Tsushima,et al.  Sensitivity of Hadley Circulation to Physical Parameters and Resolution through Changing Upper-Tropospheric Ice Clouds Using a Global Cloud-System Resolving Model , 2011 .

[44]  R. Charlson,et al.  Simulating Global Clouds: Past, Present, and Future , 2009 .

[45]  H. Niino,et al.  An Improved Mellor–Yamada Level-3 Model: Its Numerical Stability and Application to a Regional Prediction of Advection Fog , 2006 .

[46]  A. Tompkins,et al.  Radiative–convective equilibrium in a three‐dimensional cloud‐ensemble model , 1998 .

[47]  Hirofumi Tomita,et al.  New Microphysical Schemes with Five and Six Categories by Diagnostic Generation of Cloud Ice , 2008 .

[48]  Dennis L. Hartmann,et al.  An important constraint on tropical cloud ‐ climate feedback , 2002 .

[49]  H. Tomita,et al.  Importance of the subgrid-scale turbulent moist process: Cloud distribution in global cloud-resolving simulations , 2010 .

[50]  G. Craig,et al.  Fluctuations in an Equilibrium Convective Ensemble. Part II: Numerical Experiments , 2006 .

[51]  H. Tomita,et al.  A global cloud‐resolving simulation: Preliminary results from an aqua planet experiment , 2005 .