Clouds are an influential and complex element of Earth's climate system. They evolve rapidly in time and exist over small spatial scales, but also affect global radiative balance and large-scale circulations. With more powerful models and extensive observations now at our disposal, the climate impact of clouds is receiving ever more research attention.
Clouds and Their Climatic Impacts: Radiation, Circulation, and Precipitation presents an overview of our current understanding on various types of clouds and cloud systems and their multifaceted role in the radiative budget, circulation patterns, and rainfall.
Volume highlights include:
- Interactions of aerosol with both liquid and ice clouds
- Surface and atmospheric cloud radiative feedbacks and effects
- Arctic, extratropical, and tropical clouds
- Cloud-circulation coupling at global, meso, and micro scales
- Precipitation efficiency, phase, and measurements
- The role of machine learning in understanding clouds and climate
The American Geophysical Union promotes discovery in Earth and space science for the benefit of humanity. Its publications disseminate scientific knowledge and provide resources for researchers, students, and professionals.
Table of Contents
List of Contributors ix
Preface xiii
1 Science of Cloud and Climate Science: An Analysis of the Literature Over the Past 50 Years 1
Sylvia C. Sullivan and Corinna Hoose
Part I Clouds and Radiation
2 An Overview of Aerosol-Cloud Interactions 15
Hamish Gordon, Franziska Glassmeier, and Daniel McCoy
3 Ice Crystal Complexity and Link to the Cirrus Cloud Radiative Effect 47
Emma Järvinen, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Nathan Magee, Steven Neshyba, Martin Schnaiter, Guanglang Xu, Olivier Jourdan, David Delene, Fritz Waitz, Simone Lolli, and Seiji Kato
4 Cloud-Radiation Interactions and Cloud-Climate Feedbacks From an Active-Sensor Satellite Perspective 87
Grégory V. Cesana, Andrew S. Ackerman, Thibault Vaillant de Guélis, and David S. Henderson
Part II Cloud Types
5 A Review of the Factors Influencing Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds: Progress and Outlook 105
Ivy Tan, Georgia Sotiropoulou, Patrick C. Taylor, Lauren Zamora, and Manfred Wendisch
6 Extratropical Cloud Feedbacks 133
Daniel T. McCoy, Michelle E. Frazer, Johannes Mülmenstädt, Ivy Tan, Christopher R. Terai, and Mark D. Zelinka
7 Tropical Marine Low Clouds: Feedbacks to Warming and on Climate Variability 159
Timothy A. Myers, Raphaela Vogel, Florent Brient, Hossein Parishani, and Ryan C. Scott
8 Mechanisms for the Self-Organization of Tropical Deep Convection 179
Jan O. Haerter and Caroline Muller
9 An Overview of Mesoscale Convective Systems: Global Climatology, Satellite Observations, and Modeling Strategies 195
Sudip Chakraborty, Sylvia C. Sullivan, and Zhe Feng
Part III Clouds and Circulation
10 Interactions Between the Tropical Atmospheric Overturning Circulation and Clouds in Present and Future Climates 225
Kathleen A. Schiro and Hui Su
11 Clouds and Radiatively Induced Circulations 239
Tra Dinh, Bla Gasparini, and Gilles Bellon
12 The Small-Scale Mixing of Clouds with Their Environment: Impacts on Micro- and Macroscale Cloud Properties 255
Fabian Hoffmann
Part IV Clouds and Precipitation
13 Precipitation Efficiency and Climate Sensitivity 273
Nicholas J. Lutsko, Steven C. Sherwood, and Ming Zhao
14 Observed Scaling of Precipitation Extremes With Surface Temperature and Convective Available Potential Energy 287
Wenhao Dong and Yanluan Lin
15 Satellite Precipitation Measurements: What Have We Learnt About Cloud-Precipitation Processes From Space? 303
Maki Kikuchi, Scott A. Braun, Kentaroh Suzuki, Guosheng Liu, and Alessandro Battaglia
Part V Outlook
16 Machine Learning for Clouds and Climate 327
Tom Beucler, Imme Ebert-Uphoff, Stephan Rasp, Michael Pritchard, and Pierre Gentine
Index 347
