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The impact of equilibrating hemispheric albedos on tropical performance in the HadGEM2‐ES coupled climate model
Author(s) -
Haywood Jim M.,
Jones Andy,
Dunstone Nick,
Milton Sean,
Vellinga Michael,
BodasSalcedo Alejandro,
Hawcroft Matt,
Kravitz Ben,
Cole Jason,
Watanabe Shingo,
Stephens Graeme
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2015gl066903
Subject(s) - hadley cell , climatology , northern hemisphere , climate model , environmental science , precipitation , monsoon , atmospheric sciences , southern hemisphere , climate change , general circulation model , geology , geography , meteorology , oceanography
The Earth's hemispheric reflectances are equivalent to within ± 0.2 Wm −2 , even though the Northern Hemisphere contains a greater proportion of higher reflectance land areas, because of greater cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere. This equivalence is unlikely to be by chance, but the reasons are open to debate. Here we show that equilibrating hemispheric albedos in the Hadley Centre Global Environment Model version 2‐Earth System coupled climate model significantly improves what have been considered longstanding and apparently intractable model biases. Monsoon precipitation biases over all continental land areas, the penetration of monsoon rainfall across the Sahel, the West African monsoon “jump”, and indicators of hurricane frequency are all significantly improved. Mechanistically, equilibrating hemispheric albedos improves the atmospheric cross‐equatorial energy transport and increases the supply of tropical atmospheric moisture to the Hadley cell. We conclude that an accurate representation of the cross‐equatorial energy transport appears to be critical if tropical performance is to be improved.