Abstract
Climate sensitivity and cloud response of a GCM with a superparameterization
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
The climate sensitivity of an atmospheric GCM that uses a cloud-resolving model as a convective superparameterization is analyzed by comparing simulations with specified climatological sea surface temperature (SST) and with the SST increased by 2 K. The model has weaker climate sensitivity than most GCMs, but comparable climate sensitivity to recent aqua-planet simulations of a global cloud-resolving model. The weak sensitivity is primarily due to an increase in low cloud fraction and liquid water in tropical regions of moderate subsidence as well as substantial increases in high-latitude cloud fraction.
Received 12 December 2005; accepted 17 February 2006; published 29 March 2006.
Citation: (2006), Climate sensitivity and cloud response of a GCM with a superparameterization, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L06714, doi:10.1029/2005GL025464.
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