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Investigating the Influence of Cloud Radiative Effects on the Extratropical Storm Tracks
Author(s) -
Grise Kevin M.,
Medeiros Brian,
Benedict James J.,
Olson Jerry G.
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 - 10.1029/2019gl083542
Subject(s) - extratropical cyclone , storm , environmental science , middle latitudes , radiative transfer , climatology , atmospheric sciences , storm track , climate model , northern hemisphere , meteorology , climate change , geology , physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics
Recent studies have focused on the role of cloud radiative effects (CRE) in governing the mean atmospheric circulation and its response to climate change. This study instead examines the role of CRE in climate variability in the extratropics. Cloud locking experiments are performed using the Community Earth System Model. In these experiments, CRE are scrambled, such that they maintain the same climatology but no longer match the model's dynamical fields. The results of these experiments indicate that high‐frequency interactions between CRE and dynamics have a small (≤5–10%) but statistically significant damping effect on the intensity of the extratropical storm tracks, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. Individual midlatitude cyclones have decreased intensity and shorter lifetime. These effects arise largely from clouds' radiative modification of static stability below 700 hPa. The coupling among clouds, radiation, and dynamics thus has a modest but potentially important influence on the extratropical storm tracks.