Effects of Circulation on Tropical Cloud Feedbacks in High‐Resolution Simulations

Uncertainty in the response of clouds to global warming remains a significant barrier to reducing uncertainty in climate sensitivity. A key question is the extent to which the dynamic component—that which is due to changes in circulation rather than changes in the thermodynamic properties of clouds—contributes to the total cloud feedback. Here, simulations with a range of cloud‐resolving models are analyzed to quantify the impact of circulation changes on tropical cloud feedbacks. The dynamic component of the cloud feedback is substantial for some models and is controlled both by sea surface temperature (SST) induced changes in circulation and nonlinearity in the climatological relationship between clouds and circulation. We find notable inter‐model differences in the extent to which ascending regions narrow or expand in response to a change in SST, which we link to differences in the longwave and shortwave dynamic components across models. The diversity of changes in ascent area is coupled to intermodel differences in non‐radiative diabatic heating in ascending regions.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems

• Publication date

  2023-05-01

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1029/2022MS003516
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• The Response of the Large‐Scale Tropical Circulation to Warming

  2023cited by this paper
• Understanding the Extreme Spread in Climate Sensitivity within the Radiative‐Convective Equilibrium Model Intercomparison Project

  2020influential reference
• Understanding the Response of Tropical Ascent to Warming Using an Energy Balance Framework

  2020influential reference
• Clouds and Convective Self‐Aggregation in a Multimodel Ensemble of Radiative‐Convective Equilibrium Simulations

  2020influential reference
• Self-Aggregation of Deep Convection and its Implications for Climate

  2019cited by this paper
• A dichotomy between model responses of tropical ascent and descent to surface warming

  2019influential reference
• Relationships Between Tropical Ascent and High Cloud Fraction Changes With Warming Revealed by Perturbation Physics Experiments in CAM5

  2019cited by this paper
• The Relationship Between Cloud Radiative Effect and Surface Temperature Variability at El Niño‐Southern Oscillation Frequencies in CMIP5 Models

  2018influential reference
• Radiative-Convective Equilibrium Model Intercomparison Project

  2018cited by this paper
• Formation of Tropical Anvil Clouds by Slow Evaporation

  2018cited by this paper
• Cloud feedback mechanisms and their representation in global climate models

  2017cited by this paper
• The Robust Relationship Between Extreme Precipitation and Convective Organization in Idealized Numerical Modeling Simulations

  2017cited by this paper
• Atmospheric Dynamics Feedback: Concept, Simulations, and Climate Implications

  2017influential reference
• Tightening of tropical ascent and high clouds key to precipitation change in a warmer climate

  2017influential reference
• Clouds, Circulation, and Climate Sensitivity in a Radiative‐Convective Equilibrium Channel Model

  2016influential reference
• The sensitivity of convective aggregation to diabatic processes in idealized radiative‐convective equilibrium simulations

  2016cited by this paper
• Thermodynamic control of anvil cloud amount

  2016influential reference
• Energetic Constraints on the Width of the Intertropical Convergence Zone

  2016cited by this paper
• Narrowing of the ITCZ in a warming climate: Physical mechanisms

  2016cited by this paper
• The Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project (CFMIP) contribution to CMIP6.

  2016cited by this paper
• The link between extreme precipitation and convective organization in a warming climate: Global radiative‐convective equilibrium simulations

  2016cited by this paper
• Increases in moist‐convective updraught velocities with warming in radiative‐convective equilibrium

  2015cited by this paper
• Circulation response to warming shaped by radiative changes of clouds and water vapour

  2015cited by this paper
• Missing iris effect as a possible cause of muted hydrological change and high climate sensitivity in models

  2015cited by this paper
• Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

  2015cited by this paper
• The Atmospheric Energy Constraint on Global-Mean Precipitation Change

  2014cited by this paper
• Self‐aggregation of convection in long channel geometry

  2014cited by this paper
• Physical mechanisms controlling self‐aggregation of convection in idealized numerical modeling simulations

  2013influential reference
• Detailed Investigation of the Self-Aggregation of Convection in Cloud-Resolving Simulations

  2012influential reference
• A transilient matrix for moist convection

  2011cited by this paper
• Why is longwave cloud feedback positive

  2010cited by this paper
• Quantifying Climate Feedbacks Using Radiative Kernels

  2008cited by this paper
• How Well Do We Understand and Evaluate Climate Change Feedback Processes

  2006cited by this paper
• A comparison of low-latitude cloud properties and their response to climate change in three AGCMs sorted into regimes using mid-tropospheric vertical velocity

  2006cited by this paper
• Climate sensitivity and cloud response of a GCM with a superparameterization

  2006cited by this paper
• A simple model for surface stress and low‐level flow in the tropical atmosphere driven by prescribed heating

  2006cited by this paper
• An Energy-Balance Analysis of Deep Convective Self-Aggregation above Uniform SST

  2005cited by this paper
• Marine boundary layer clouds at the heart of tropical cloud feedback uncertainties in climate models

  2005cited by this paper
• On dynamic and thermodynamic components of cloud changes

  2004influential reference
• An important constraint on tropical cloud ‐ climate feedback

  2002cited by this paper
• Comments on "Does the Earth Have an Adaptive Infrared Iris?".

  2002cited by this paper
• Tropical Convection and the Energy Balance at the Top of the Atmosphere

  2001cited by this paper
• Modeling Tropical Precipitation in a Single Column

  2000cited by this paper
• Thermostats, radiator fins, and the local runaway greenhouse

  1995cited by this paper
• On the Observed Near Cancellation between Longwave and Shortwave Cloud Forcing in Tropical Regions

  1994influential reference
• Radiative-convective equilibrium with explicit two-dimensional moist convection

  1993cited by this paper
• A methodology for understanding and intercomparing atmospheric climate feedback processes in general circulation models

  1988cited by this paper
• A Note on Large-Scale Motions in the Tropics

  1963cited by this paper
• PCIC SCIENCE BRIEF : SPREAD IN MODEL CLIMATE SENSITIVITY TRACED TO ATMOSPHERIC CONVECTIVE MIXING

  year unknowncited by this paper

• Circulation and Cloud Responses to Patterned SST Warming

  2025cites this paper
• Cloud Feedback Uncertainty in the Equatorial Pacific Across CMIP6 Models

  2025influential citation
• Microphysical fingerprints in anvil cloud albedo

  2025cites this paper
• The Response of the Large‐Scale Tropical Circulation to Warming

  2023cites this paper
• Climate Models Underestimate Dynamic Cloud Feedbacks in the Tropics

  2023cites this paper
• Vertical Resolution Impacts Explicit Simulation of Deep Convection

  2023cites this paper
• Microphysical fingerprints in anvil cloud albedo

  year unknowncites this paper