Articles | Volume 25, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-473-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-473-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
15 Jan 2025
Research article |
| 15 Jan 2025
| 15 Jan 2025
Impact of host climate model on contrail cirrus effective radiative forcing estimates
Weiyu Zhang
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Kwinten Van Weverberg
Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Meteorological and Climatological Research Unit, Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium
Met Office, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
Cyril J. Morcrette
Met Office, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Exeter University, Exeter, EX4 4QE, UK
Wuhu Feng
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9PH, UK
Kalli Furtado
Met Office, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
Centre for Climate Research Singapore, Meteorological Service Singapore, 537054, Singapore
Paul R. Field
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Met Office, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK
Chih-Chieh Chen
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
Andrew Gettelman
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
Piers M. Forster
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Daniel R. Marsh
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
Data sets
Impact of host climate model on contrail cirrus effective radiative forcing estimates Weiyu Zhang https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14186981
Model code and software
CAM: The Community Atmosphere Model University Corporation for Atmospheric Research - National Center for Atmospheric Research (UCAR-NCAR) https://github.com/ESCOMP/CAM/tree/cam6_3_027
Short summary
Contrail cirrus is the largest, but also most uncertain, contribution of aviation to global warming. We evaluate, for the first time, the impact of the host climate model on contrail cirrus properties. Substantial differences exist between contrail cirrus formation, persistence, and radiative effects in the host climate models. Reliable contrail cirrus simulations require advanced representation of cloud optical properties and microphysics, which should be better constrained by observations.
Contrail cirrus is the largest, but also most uncertain, contribution of aviation to global...
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