Abstract
Cloud-radiative feedback is negative in version 2 of the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM2) in a surrogate climate change as employed in Cess et al. (1990). This negative cloud feedback is due to enhanced longwave emission caused by reduction of high clouds in a warmer climate (Zhang et al., 1994). Since longwave emission from clouds is closely related with cloud emissivities, and there are large uncertainties in their parameterization in the upper troposphere, it is anticipated that emissivity has a large impact on the behavior of cloud-radiative feedback in this model. Intuitively, if cloud emissivity is larger (smaller), the negative longwave feedback is expected to be stronger (weaker). This paper reports a sensitivity study in this line. It shows that negative cloud-radiative feedback in CCM2 becomes weaker when cloud emissivity is either increased or decreased.
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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Zhang, M.H., Kiehl, J.T., Hack, J.J. (1996). Cloud-Radiative Feedback as Produced by Different Parameterizations of Cloud Emissivity in CCM2. In: Treut, H.L. (eds) Climate Sensitivity to Radiative Perturbations. NATO ASI Series, vol 34. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61053-0_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-61053-0_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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