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Cloud and radiation budget changes associated with tropical intraseasonal oscillations
Author(s) -
Spencer Roy W.,
Braswell William D.,
Christy John R.,
Hnilo Justin
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.1029/2007gl029698
Subject(s) - longwave , outgoing longwave radiation , climatology , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , precipitation , radiative cooling , cloud cover , satellite , troposphere , radiative transfer , climate model , atmosphere (unit) , cloud forcing , meteorology , climate change , cloud computing , geology , geography , physics , convection , oceanography , quantum mechanics , astronomy , computer science , operating system
We explore the daily evolution of tropical intraseasonal oscillations in satellite‐observed tropospheric temperature, precipitation, radiative fluxes, and cloud properties. The warm/rainy phase of a composited average of fifteen oscillations is accompanied by a net reduction in radiative input into the ocean‐atmosphere system, with longwave heating anomalies transitioning to longwave cooling during the rainy phase. The increase in longwave cooling is traced to decreasing coverage by ice clouds, potentially supporting Lindzen's “infrared iris” hypothesis of climate stabilization. These observations should be considered in the testing of cloud parameterizations in climate models, which remain sources of substantial uncertainty in global warming prediction.