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Band‐by‐Band Contributions to the Longwave Cloud Radiative Feedbacks
Author(s) -
Huang Xianglei,
Chen Xiuhong,
Yue Qing
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl083466
Subject(s) - longwave , radiative transfer , environmental science , shortwave , cloud fraction , atmospheric sciences , cloud computing , broadband , remote sensing , meteorology , climatology , cloud cover , physics , geology , computer science , optics , operating system
Cloud radiative feedback is central to our projection of future climate change. It can be estimated using the cloud radiative kernel (CRK) method or adjustment method. This study, for the first time, examines the contributions of each spectral band to the longwave (LW) cloud radiative feedbacks (CRFs). Simulations of three warming scenarios are analyzed, including +2 K sea surface temperature, 2 × CO 2 , and 4 × CO 2 experiments. While the LW broadband CRFs derived from the CRK and adjustment methods agree with each other, they disagree on the relative contributions from the far‐infrared and window bands. The CRK method provides a consistent band‐by‐band decomposition of LW CRF for different warming scenarios. The simulated and observed short‐term broadband CRFs for the 2003–2013 period are similar to the long‐term counterparts, but their band‐by‐band decompositions are different, which can be further related to the cloud fraction changes in respective simulations and observation.