Two Ubiquitous Radiative States Observed across the High Latitudes

Abstract

Previous studies have shown the Arctic exhibits two preferred radiative states, one that is regarded as "radiatively opaque"and the other as "radiatively clear"; this presents as bimodality in the surface longwave flux distributions. How frequently these two states occur and what causes them to persist has significant implications for the polar climate. Furthermore, in the presence of multimodality, evaluating models based solely on their ability to resolve the mean and variance of a distribution can lead to a poor representation of the physical evolution of our climate. This study takes a holistic view of this bimodal behavior, seeking to understand to what degree the high latitudes of both hemispheres reside in distinct radiative states. Even when separated into climatologically distinct subregions, many polar regions exhibit bimodality in their longwave flux distributions not observed at lower latitudes, suggesting that the existence of these two states is both common in and unique to polar regions. Bimodality arises due to a tendency for the atmosphere to alternate between transmissive or opaque clouds, with surface longwave radiative effects of approximately 0 and 75W m22 (relative to clear-sky values), respectively. Clouds need not contain liquid to lead to the opaque state, as is typically assumed. The presence of solely ice clouds can cause bimodality to arise in downwelling longwave flux distributions. While some regions do not explicitly exhibit multimodal surface longwave radiation distributions, it is found that similar cloud states exist but in disproportionate frequencies.