Quantification of Global Cloud Properties With Use of Spherical Harmonic Functions Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractSpherical harmonic (SH) expansion is a useful tool to study any variable that has valid values at all latitudes and longitudes. The variable can be quantified as a sum of different spherical harmonic components, which are the spherical harmonic functions multiplied by their expansion coefficients. We find that the SH components of cloud radiative effect (CRE) have correlations with El NioSouthern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Hadley Circulation (HC). In particular, the expansion degree 2 () SH power spectrum component anomaly of CRE is strongly correlated with ENSO. The two dipole patterns appearing in the SH component anomaly map can be reasonably explained by a known mechanism of ENSO's impact on cloud properties. The and SH power spectrum components are correlated with HC intensity, whereas the and components are correlated with HC latitudinal widths. In ENSO warm and cold phases, the HCcorrelated SH components have opposite anomalies, which suggests the impact of ENSO on HC. This study illustrates that the SH expansion technique provides a different perspective to study the impacts of largescale atmospheric circulation on global cloud properties and radiative effects.

published proceedings

  • EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE

author list (cited authors)

  • Ding, J., Yang, P., Wang, L., Oran, E., Loeb, N., Smith Jr, W., & Minnis, P.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Ding, Jiachen||Yang, Ping||Wang, Lifan||Oran, Elaine||Loeb, Norman GG||Smith Jr, William LL||Minnis, Patrick

publication date

  • March 2023