A systematic evaluation of high-cloud controlling factors

Wilson Kemsley, Sarah; Ceppi, Paulo; Andersen, Hendrik; Cermak, Jan; Stier, Philip; Nowack, Peer

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8295-2024

Articles | Volume 24, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8295-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8295-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 14

Research article

|

24 Jul 2024

Research article |

| 24 Jul 2024

A systematic evaluation of high-cloud controlling factors

Sarah Wilson Kemsley, Paulo Ceppi, Hendrik Andersen, Jan Cermak, Philip Stier, and Peer Nowack

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8295-2024-supplement

Data sets

ERA5 monthly averaged data on single levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach, et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.f17050d7

ERA5 monthly averaged data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach, et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.6860a573

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach, et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

MODIS Standard Atmosphere Level-3 MCD06COSP P. Hubanks, et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MCD06COSP_M3_MODIS.062

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Short summary

Aiming to inform parameter selection for future observational constraint analyses, we incorporate five candidate meteorological drivers specifically targeting high clouds into a cloud controlling factor framework within a range of spatial domain sizes. We find a discrepancy between optimal domain size for predicting locally and globally aggregated cloud radiative anomalies and identify upper-tropospheric static stability as an important high-cloud controlling factor.