The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates
Clouds are one of the most influential components of Earth’s climate system. Specifically, the midlatitude clouds play a vital role in shaping Earth’s albedo. This study investigates the connection between baroclinic activity, which dominates the midlatitude climate, and cloud-albedo and how it rela...
Published in: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-04306808 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 |
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ftccsdartic:oai:HAL:hal-04306808v1 2023-12-24T10:07:44+01:00 The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates Hadas, Or Datseris, George Blanco, Joaquin Bony, Sandrine Caballero, Rodrigo Stevens, Bjorn Kaspi, Yohai Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL) 2023-01-27 https://hal.science/hal-04306808 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 en eng HAL CCSD National Academy of Sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 hal-04306808 https://hal.science/hal-04306808 doi:10.1073/pnas.2208778120 ISSN: 0027-8424 EISSN: 1091-6490 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America https://hal.science/hal-04306808 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023, 120 (5), ⟨10.1073/pnas.2208778120⟩ [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere info:eu-repo/semantics/article Journal articles 2023 ftccsdartic https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 2023-11-25T23:35:19Z Clouds are one of the most influential components of Earth’s climate system. Specifically, the midlatitude clouds play a vital role in shaping Earth’s albedo. This study investigates the connection between baroclinic activity, which dominates the midlatitude climate, and cloud-albedo and how it relates to Earth’s existing hemispheric albedo symmetry. We show that baroclinic activity and cloud-albedo are highly correlated. By using Lagrangian tracking of cyclones and anticyclones and analyzing their individual cloud properties at different vertical levels, we explain why their cloud-albedo increases monotonically with intensity. We find that while for anticyclones, the relation between strength and cloudiness is mostly linear, for cyclones, in which clouds are more prevalent, the relation saturates with strength. Using the cloud-albedo strength relationships and the climatology of baroclinic activity, we demonstrate that the observed hemispheric difference in cloud-albedo is well explained by the difference in the population of cyclones and anticyclones, which counter-balances the difference in clear-sky albedo. Finally, we discuss the robustness of the hemispheric albedo symmetry in the future climate. Seemingly, the symmetry should break, as the northern hemisphere’s storm track response differs from that of the southern hemisphere due to Arctic amplification. However, we show that the saturation of the cloud response to storm intensity implies that the increase in the skewness of the southern hemisphere storm distribution toward strong storms will decrease future cloud-albedo in the southern hemisphere. This complex response explains how albedo symmetry might persist even with the predicted asymmetric hemispheric change in baroclinicity under climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Climate change Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Arctic Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120 5 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Archive ouverte HAL (Hyper Article en Ligne, CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) |
op_collection_id |
ftccsdartic |
language |
English |
topic |
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere |
spellingShingle |
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere Hadas, Or Datseris, George Blanco, Joaquin Bony, Sandrine Caballero, Rodrigo Stevens, Bjorn Kaspi, Yohai The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
topic_facet |
[SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean Atmosphere |
description |
Clouds are one of the most influential components of Earth’s climate system. Specifically, the midlatitude clouds play a vital role in shaping Earth’s albedo. This study investigates the connection between baroclinic activity, which dominates the midlatitude climate, and cloud-albedo and how it relates to Earth’s existing hemispheric albedo symmetry. We show that baroclinic activity and cloud-albedo are highly correlated. By using Lagrangian tracking of cyclones and anticyclones and analyzing their individual cloud properties at different vertical levels, we explain why their cloud-albedo increases monotonically with intensity. We find that while for anticyclones, the relation between strength and cloudiness is mostly linear, for cyclones, in which clouds are more prevalent, the relation saturates with strength. Using the cloud-albedo strength relationships and the climatology of baroclinic activity, we demonstrate that the observed hemispheric difference in cloud-albedo is well explained by the difference in the population of cyclones and anticyclones, which counter-balances the difference in clear-sky albedo. Finally, we discuss the robustness of the hemispheric albedo symmetry in the future climate. Seemingly, the symmetry should break, as the northern hemisphere’s storm track response differs from that of the southern hemisphere due to Arctic amplification. However, we show that the saturation of the cloud response to storm intensity implies that the increase in the skewness of the southern hemisphere storm distribution toward strong storms will decrease future cloud-albedo in the southern hemisphere. This complex response explains how albedo symmetry might persist even with the predicted asymmetric hemispheric change in baroclinicity under climate change. |
author2 |
Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539) (LMD) Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-École polytechnique (X)-École des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Département des Géosciences - ENS Paris École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-École normale supérieure - Paris (ENS-PSL) Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hadas, Or Datseris, George Blanco, Joaquin Bony, Sandrine Caballero, Rodrigo Stevens, Bjorn Kaspi, Yohai |
author_facet |
Hadas, Or Datseris, George Blanco, Joaquin Bony, Sandrine Caballero, Rodrigo Stevens, Bjorn Kaspi, Yohai |
author_sort |
Hadas, Or |
title |
The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
title_short |
The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
title_full |
The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
title_fullStr |
The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
title_full_unstemmed |
The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
title_sort |
role of baroclinic activity in controlling earth’s albedo in the present and future climates |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://hal.science/hal-04306808 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Climate change |
op_source |
ISSN: 0027-8424 EISSN: 1091-6490 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America https://hal.science/hal-04306808 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2023, 120 (5), ⟨10.1073/pnas.2208778120⟩ |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 hal-04306808 https://hal.science/hal-04306808 doi:10.1073/pnas.2208778120 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2208778120 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
container_volume |
120 |
container_issue |
5 |
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1786215129445040128 |