Revisiting Cloud Radiative Heating and the Southern Annular Mode

Wall, Casey J.; Lutsko, Nicholas J.; Vishny, David N.

doi:10.1029/2022gl100463

i

Revisiting Cloud Radiative Heating and the Southern Annular Mode

Supporting Files

2022
By Wall, Casey J. ; Lutsko, Nicholas J. ; Vishny, David N.

Details

Journal Title:

Geophysical Research Letters
Personal Author:

Wall, Casey J. ; Lutsko, Nicholas J. ; Vishny, David N.
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research)
Description:

Cloud‐circulation interactions have a potentially large but uncertain influence on regional climate. Here we use satellite observations to investigate relationships between atmospheric cloud radiative heating and hemispheric‐scale shifts in the Southern Hemisphere extratropical jet stream, as represented by the Southern Annular Mode. In contrast to a previous study, we find that poleward jet shifts cause bottom‐heavy heating anomalies. The heating anomalies arise from two distinct mechanisms: First, poleward jet shifts promote anomalous large‐scale subsidence equatorward of the mean jet latitude. This increases the fraction of low clouds that are exposed to space, thereby enhancing lower‐tropospheric radiative cooling. Second, deep and multi‐layer clouds in extratropical cyclones shift poleward with the jet, causing radiative heating anomalies throughout the troposphere. The bottom‐heavy structure of the heating anomalies occurs because low clouds strongly emit radiation. These results establish new observational benchmarks for understanding extratropical cloud‐circulation interactions.
Keywords:

General Earth And Planetary Sciences Geophysics General Earth And Planetary Sciences General Earth And Planetary Sciences
Source:

Geophysical Research Letters, 49(19)
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1029/2022gl100463
ISSN:

0094-8276 ; 1944-8007
Format:

PDF
Publisher:

American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA20OAR4310387
Rights Information:

Other
Compliance:

Library
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha256:6dfce1aff555dfe08d89bfc728c380ba39dd373f10bf288a117c04be124b703c
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/59830/noaa_59830_DS1.pdf
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[PDF - 843.74 KB ]

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