Riehl and Malkus Revisited: The Role of Cloud Radiative Effects

The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) exports energy and imports moisture. This has been understood for decades. By analyzing a set of uniform, nonrotating aquaplanet simulations, we show that energy export and moisture convergence are general characteristics of warm humid regions, and not just of the ITCZ. Using an analysis method based on the column relative humidity, we find that the absorption of longwave radiation by clouds supplies the energy that is exported from humid regions. The longwave absorption also induces a thermally direct circulation that lifts water vapor and converges moisture into regions that are already quite humid. An additional set of simulations shows that strong atmospheric energy convergence is absent when radiation is homogenized across the domain.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

• Publication date

  2021-07-28

• Fields of study

  Physics, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1029/2021JD035019
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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