Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4
Abstract Global climate models (GCMs) struggle to simulate polar clouds, especially low‐level clouds that contain supercooled liquid and closely interact with both the underlying surface and large‐scale atmosphere. Here we focus on GFDL's latest coupled GCM–CM4–and find that polar low‐level clo...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/article/397aa585da284f018b5ef01979873b26 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:397aa585da284f018b5ef01979873b26 2024-09-15T18:34:43+00:00 Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 Xia Li Zhihong Tan Youtong Zheng Mitchell Bushuk Leo J. Donner 2023-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/article/397aa585da284f018b5ef01979873b26 EN eng Wiley https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/toc/0094-8276 https://doaj.org/toc/1944-8007 1944-8007 0094-8276 doi:10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/article/397aa585da284f018b5ef01979873b26 Geophysical Research Letters, Vol 50, Iss 24, Pp n/a-n/a (2023) Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809 article 2023 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 2024-08-05T17:49:23Z Abstract Global climate models (GCMs) struggle to simulate polar clouds, especially low‐level clouds that contain supercooled liquid and closely interact with both the underlying surface and large‐scale atmosphere. Here we focus on GFDL's latest coupled GCM–CM4–and find that polar low‐level clouds are biased high compared to observations. The CM4 bias is largely due to moisture fluxes that occur within partially ice‐covered grid cells, which enhance low cloud formation in non‐summer seasons. In simulations where these fluxes are suppressed, it is found that open water with an areal fraction less than 5% dominates the formation of low‐level clouds and contributes to more than 50% of the total low‐level cloud response to open water within sea ice. These findings emphasize the importance of accurately modeling open water processes (e.g., sea ice lead‐atmosphere interactions) in the polar regions in GCMs. Article in Journal/Newspaper Sea ice Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Geophysical Research Letters 50 24 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809 |
spellingShingle |
Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809 Xia Li Zhihong Tan Youtong Zheng Mitchell Bushuk Leo J. Donner Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 |
topic_facet |
Geophysics. Cosmic physics QC801-809 |
description |
Abstract Global climate models (GCMs) struggle to simulate polar clouds, especially low‐level clouds that contain supercooled liquid and closely interact with both the underlying surface and large‐scale atmosphere. Here we focus on GFDL's latest coupled GCM–CM4–and find that polar low‐level clouds are biased high compared to observations. The CM4 bias is largely due to moisture fluxes that occur within partially ice‐covered grid cells, which enhance low cloud formation in non‐summer seasons. In simulations where these fluxes are suppressed, it is found that open water with an areal fraction less than 5% dominates the formation of low‐level clouds and contributes to more than 50% of the total low‐level cloud response to open water within sea ice. These findings emphasize the importance of accurately modeling open water processes (e.g., sea ice lead‐atmosphere interactions) in the polar regions in GCMs. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Xia Li Zhihong Tan Youtong Zheng Mitchell Bushuk Leo J. Donner |
author_facet |
Xia Li Zhihong Tan Youtong Zheng Mitchell Bushuk Leo J. Donner |
author_sort |
Xia Li |
title |
Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 |
title_short |
Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 |
title_full |
Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 |
title_fullStr |
Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Open Water in Sea Ice Causes High Bias in Polar Low‐Level Clouds in GFDL CM4 |
title_sort |
open water in sea ice causes high bias in polar low‐level clouds in gfdl cm4 |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/article/397aa585da284f018b5ef01979873b26 |
genre |
Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Sea ice |
op_source |
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol 50, Iss 24, Pp n/a-n/a (2023) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/toc/0094-8276 https://doaj.org/toc/1944-8007 1944-8007 0094-8276 doi:10.1029/2023GL106322 https://doaj.org/article/397aa585da284f018b5ef01979873b26 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL106322 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
50 |
container_issue |
24 |
_version_ |
1810476658765856768 |