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Climate Processes: Clouds, Aerosols and Dynamics

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Abstract

Physical processes not well resolved by climate models continue to limit confidence in detailed predictions of climate change. The representation of cloud and convection-related processes dominates the model spread in global climate sensitivity, and affects the simulation of important aspects of the present-day climate especially in the tropics. Uncertainty in aerosol radiative effects complicates the interpretation of climate changes in the observational and paleoclimate records, in particular limiting our ability to infer climate sensitivity. Dynamical uncertainties, notably those involving teleconnections and troposphere-stratosphere interaction, also affect simulation of regional climate change especially at high latitudes. In response, targeted field programs, new satellite capabilities, and new computational approaches are promoting progress on these problems. Advances include recognition of the likely importance of non-greenhouse gas forcings in driving recent trends in the general circulation, compensating interactions and emergent phenomena in aerosol-cloud-dynamical systems, and the climatic importance of cumulus entrainment. Continued progress will require, among other things, more integrative analysis of key processes across scales, recognizing the complexity at the local level but also the constraints and possible buffering operating at larger (system) scales.

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Acknowledgments 

AAS was supported by the Joint DECC/Defra Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme (GA01101). EPG is supported by the US National Science Foundation under grant AGS- 0938325. GF acknowledges NOAA’s Climate Goal.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) and Australian Research Council (ARC), Centre of Excellence for Earth Systems Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, 2052, Australia

    Steven C. Sherwood

  2. NorthWest Research Associates, 3380 Mitchell Lane, Boulder, CO, 80301, USA

    M. Joan Alexander

  3. Met Office, Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, UK

    Andy R. Brown & Adam A. Scaife

  4. Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis, University of Victoria, 3065 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, V8W 3V6, Canada

    Norm A. McFarlane

  5. Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 251 Mercer Street, New York, NY, 10012, USA

    Edwin P. Gerber

  6. Chemical Sciences Division, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway R/CSD2, Boulder, CO, 80305, USA

    Graham Feingold

  7. Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, 3000, Boulder, CO, 80307-300, USA

    Wojciech W. Grabowski

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  1. Steven C. Sherwood
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Correspondence to Steven C. Sherwood .

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  1. World Climate Research Programme, World Meteorological Organization, bis, Avenue de la Paix 7, Geneva 2, 1211, Switzerland

    Ghassem R. Asrar

  2. Earth System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Center Green Drive 3090, Boulder, 80301, Colorado, USA

    James W. Hurrell

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Sherwood, S.C. et al. (2013). Climate Processes: Clouds, Aerosols and Dynamics. In: Asrar, G., Hurrell, J. (eds) Climate Science for Serving Society. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6692-1_4

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