Articles | Volume 19, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2813-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2813-2019
Research article
 | 
04 Mar 2019
Research article |  | 04 Mar 2019

Evaluating models' response of tropical low clouds to SST forcings using CALIPSO observations

Grégory Cesana, Anthony D. Del Genio, Andrew S. Ackerman, Maxwell Kelley, Gregory Elsaesser, Ann M. Fridlind, Ye Cheng, and Mao-Sung Yao

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The response of low clouds to climate change (i.e., cloud feedbacks) is still pointed out as being the largest source of uncertainty in climate models. Here we use CALIPSO observations to discriminate climate models that reproduce observed interannual change of cloud fraction with SST forcings, referred to as a present-day cloud feedback. Modeling moist processes in the planetary boundary layer is crucial to produce large stratocumulus decks and realistic present-day cloud feedbacks.
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