Larger Cloud Liquid Water Enhances Both Aerosol Indirect Forcing and Cloud Radiative Feedback in Two Earth System Models Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • AbstractPrevious studies have noticed that the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models with a stronger cooling from aerosolcloud interactions (ACI) also have an enhanced warming from positive cloud feedback, and these two opposing effects are counterbalanced in simulations of the historical period. However, reasons for this anticorrelation are less explored. In this study, we perturb the cloud ice microphysical processes to obtain cloud liquid of varying amounts in two Earth System Models (ESMs). We find that the model simulations with a larger liquid water path (LWP) tend to have a stronger cooling from ACI and a stronger positive cloud feedback. More liquid clouds in the meanstate present more opportunities for anthropogenic aerosol perturbations and also weaken the negative cloud feedback at middle to high latitudes. This work, from a cloud state perspective, emphasizes the influence of the meanstate LWP on effective radiative forcing due to ACI (ERFACI).

published proceedings

  • Geophysical Research Letters

altmetric score

  • 12.25

author list (cited authors)

  • Zhao, X. i., Liu, X., Lin, L., Qin, Y. i., Zelinka, M. D., Klein, S. A., ... Saravanan, R.

citation count

  • 0

complete list of authors

  • Zhao, Xi||Liu, Xiaohong||Lin, Lin||Qin, Yi||Zelinka, Mark D||Klein, Stephen A||Zhang, Meng||Zhang, Kai||Ma, Po‐Lun||Zhu, Jiang||Lu, Zheng||Saravanan, Ramalingam

publication date

  • January 2024