Extratropical trends in cloud amount, thermodynamic phase, liquid and ice water path
Abstract
We will describe trends in cloud fraction, thermodynamic phase of liquid and ice clouds, ice water path (IWP) and liquid water path (LWP), and ice and liquid cloud optical thickness from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Multisensor Advanced Climatology Mean Liquid Water Path (MAC-LWP) data sets. While the AIRS effective cloud fraction (ECF) does not show statistically significant trends in the extratropics, significant trends in liquid and ice phase partitioning are apparent, suggesting trends are much stronger in cloud phase compared to cloud amount. A strong increase in liquid cloud frequency is observed in the SH, while decreases in ice cloud frequency and IWP are observed in both the NH and SH. The MAC-LWP data set shows increases in LWP in similar regions where AIRS shows increases in liquid cloud frequency. We will compare these results to MODIS trends as well. These observations are largely consistent with the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) model ensemble results.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFM.A33C2383K
- Keywords:
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- 3305 Climate change and variability;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3337 Global climate models;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 3354 Precipitation;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES