Premium
The Influence of Sea Surface Temperature Reemergence on Marine Stratiform Cloud
Author(s) -
Geiss Andrew,
Marchand Roger,
Thompson LuAnne
Publication year - 2020
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 - 10.1029/2020gl086957
Subject(s) - sea surface temperature , shortwave , climatology , environmental science , cloud computing , cloud top , radiative transfer , satellite , cloud fraction , atmospheric sciences , cloud cover , geology , physics , computer science , operating system , astronomy , quantum mechanics
The global distribution of winter to winter sea surface temperature (SST) reemergence is analyzed using a novel metric based on an autoregressive 1 model, and the global impact of SST on cloud amount and cloud type are examined using satellite data. A region in the northeastern Pacific Ocean is identified where wintertime SSTs are correlated with the occurrence of marine stratiform cloud the following winter. This correlation is likely a manifestation of SST reemergence. We hypothesize that through this reemergence mechanism marine stratus cloud amount, and thus shortwave cloud radiative effect, in the northeastern Pacific exhibits memory on inter‐seasonal and even multi‐year time scales and that exploration of this relationship may provide insight into the SST—low cloud feedbacks.