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Advances in studies of cloud overlap and its radiative transfer in climate models

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Abstract

The latest advances in studies on the treatment of cloud overlap and its radiative transfer in global climate models are summarized. Developments with respect to this internationally challenging problem are described from aspects such as the design of cloud overlap assumptions, the realization of cloud overlap assumptions within climate models, and the data and methods used to obtain consistent observations of cloud overlap structure and radiative transfer in overlapping clouds. To date, there has been an appreciable level of achievement in studies on cloud overlap in climate models, demonstrated by the development of scientific assumptions (e.g., e-folding overlap) to describe cloud overlap, the invention and broad application of the fast radiative transfer method for overlapped clouds (Monte Carlo Independent Column Approximation), and the emergence of continuous 3D cloud satellite observation (e.g., CloudSat/CALIPSO) and cloud-resolving models, which provide numerous data valuable for the exact description of cloud overlap structure in climate models. However, present treatments of cloud overlap and its radiative transfer process are far from complete, and there remain many unsettled problems that need to be explored in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Climate Studies, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Hua Zhang  (张华) & Xianwen Jing  (荆现文)

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Hua Zhang  (张华) & Xianwen Jing  (荆现文)

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  1. Hua Zhang  (张华)
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Correspondence to Xianwen Jing  (荆现文).

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Supported by the China Meteorological Administration Special Public Welfare Research Fund (GYHY201406023) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41375080).

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Zhang, H., Jing, X. Advances in studies of cloud overlap and its radiative transfer in climate models. J Meteorol Res 30, 156–168 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-016-5164-5

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