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An Observational View of Relationships Between Moisture Aggregation, Cloud, and Radiative Heating Profiles

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Shallow Clouds, Water Vapor, Circulation, and Climate Sensitivity

Part of the book series: Space Sciences Series of ISSI ((SSSI,volume 65))

Abstract

Data from several coincident satellite sensors are analyzed to determine the dependence of cloud and precipitation characteristics of tropical regions on the variance in the water vapor field. Increased vapor variance is associated with decreased high cloud fraction and an enhancement of low-level radiative cooling in dry regions of the domain. The result is found across a range of sea surface temperatures and rain rates. This suggests the possibility of an enhanced low-level circulation feeding the moist convecting areas when vapor variance is large. These findings are consistent with idealized models of self-aggregation, in which the aggregation of convection is maintained by a combination of low-level radiative cooling in dry regions and mid-to-upper-level radiative warming in cloudy regions.

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Acknowledgments

This paper originates from discussions during the International Space Science Institute (ISSI) Workshop on ‘Shallow clouds and water vapor, circulation and climate sensitivity.’ This research was primarily carried out by ML at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under RTOP/WBS (105357/967701.02.01.02.08). RP was supported by the National Science Foundation under award ATM-1138394. AMSR data are produced by Remote Sensing Systems and were sponsored by the NASA AMSR-E Science Team and the NASA Earth Science MEaSUREs Program. Data are available at www.remss.com. CloudSat data were obtained from the CloudSat Data Processing Center (http://www.cloudsat.cira.colostate.edu/). MODIS data were obtained from the Goddard DAAC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 91109, USA

    Matthew D. Lebsock

  2. University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Tristan S. L’Ecuyer

  3. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

    Robert Pincus

  4. Physical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA

    Robert Pincus

Authors
  1. Matthew D. Lebsock
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  2. Tristan S. L’Ecuyer
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  3. Robert Pincus
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew D. Lebsock .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder , Boulder, Colorado, USA

    Robert Pincus

  2. Atmospheric Sciences, NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Sciences, HAMPTON, Virginia, USA

    David Winker

  3. Institute Pierre Simon Laplace, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique , Paris, France

    Sandrine Bony

  4. Max Planck Institute for Meteorology , Hamburg, Germany

    Bjorn Stevens

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Lebsock, M.D., L’Ecuyer, T.S., Pincus, R. (2017). An Observational View of Relationships Between Moisture Aggregation, Cloud, and Radiative Heating Profiles. In: Pincus, R., Winker, D., Bony, S., Stevens, B. (eds) Shallow Clouds, Water Vapor, Circulation, and Climate Sensitivity. Space Sciences Series of ISSI, vol 65. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77273-8_3

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