Dynamic effects on the tropical cloud radiative forcing and radiation budget

Abstract

Vertical velocity is used to isolate the effect of large-scale dynamics on the observed radiation budget and cloud properties in the tropics, using the methodology suggested by Bony et al. Cloud and radiation budget quantities in the tropics show well-defined responses to the large-scale vertical motion at 500 hPa. For the tropics as a whole, the ratio of shortwave to longwave cloud forcing (hereafter N) is about 1.2 in regions of upward motion, and increases to about 1.9 m regions of strong subsidence. If the analysis is restricted to oceanic regions with SST > 28°C, N does not increase as much for subsiding motions, because the stratocumulus regions are eliminated, and the net cloud forcing decreases linearly from about near zero for zero vertical velocity to about -15 W m-2 for strongly subsiding motion. Increasingly negative cloud forcing with increasing upward motion is mostly related to an increasing abundance of high, thick clouds. Although a consistent dynamical effect on the annual cycle of about 1 W m-2 can be identified, the effect of the probability density function (PDF) of the large-scale vertical velocity on long-term trends in the tropical mean radiation budget is very small compared to the observed variations. Observed tropical mean changes can be as large as ±3 W m-2, while the dynamical components are generally smaller than ±0.5 W m-2. For relatively small regions in the east and west Pacific, changes in the relative magnitude of longwave and shortwave cloud forcing can be related to the PDF of vertical velocity. The east Pacific in 1987 and 1998 showed large reductions of N in association with an increase in the fraction of the area in the domain with upward motion, and concomitant increases in high cloud. For the west Pacific in 1998, a large increase in N was caused not so much by a change in the mean vertical motion, but rather by a shift from top- to bottom-heavy upward motion. © 2008 American Meteorological Society.