Reduction in the Arctic Surface Warm Bias in the NCAR CAM6 by Reducing Excessive Low-Level Clouds in the Arctic

• Published in: Atmosphere
• Main Authors: Jungeun Bae, Hyun-Joon Sung, Eun-Hyuk Baek, Ji-Hun Choi, Hyo-Jung Lee, Baek-Min Kim
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2023
• Subjects: arctic low-level clouds; downward longwave radiation; freeze-dry cloud scheme; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14030522

High-latitude low clouds in the Northern winter have been known to be closely related to the Arctic surface air temperature by controlling downward longwave radiation, but Earth system models often fail to accurately simulate this relationship. In this study, we conducted a series of model experiments to examine the role of winter high-latitude low-level clouds in determining the Arctic surface temperature. Our findings show that low-level clouds play a significant role in regulating the Arctic surface temperature. We used the NCAR CAM6 model and compared the results of an unforced simulation run with those of an experiment using an empirical low-level cloud scheme to alleviate the typical overestimation of the low cloud fraction of state-of-the-art general circulation models at high latitudes. The unforced simulation exhibited excessive downward longwave radiation in the Arctic, resulting in a significant warm bias compared to reanalysis data. On the other hand, the experiment using a modified scheme more closely resembled the reanalysis data in terms of low-level cloud simulation. Overall, our study underscores the importance of accurately representing low-level clouds in high-latitude regions to reduce surface temperature bias in the model.