A Comparative Study of Cloud Properties Between Northern and Southern High Latitudes Based on ARM Observations and EAMv2 Simulations
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Earth's high‐latitude regions show a considerable amount of cloud coverage, which significantly affects global radiation budgets. In this study, we examine ground‐ and ship‐based remote sensing observations from two Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) field campaigns conducted in the high‐latitude regions of Northern and Southern Hemispheres (NH and SH). A comparison of macrophysical properties for low, mid‐level, high, and deep clouds shows that the cloud top heights and thickness values are higher in the Arctic for each cloud type compared with the Southern Ocean and Antarctic regions, possibly due to higher sea surface temperatures in the north Atlantic. The Arctic also shows lower ice phase occurrence frequencies compared with the SH high latitudes for low clouds. For high, mid‐level and deep clouds, the cloud phase distributions as a function of temperature show small geographical variabilities. The observations are then compared with the Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) to evaluate the representations of these cloud properties. The results show that the model captures cloud base and top heights well and reproduces the differences in cloud macrophysical properties between the two hemispheres. But the model underestimates ice phase frequencies for all cloud types. Such model cloud phase bias is strongly correlated with positive relative humidity biases and negative aerosol number concentration biases, indicating an important role of relative humidity and aerosols in modulating cloud phase partitioning in the model.
DOI: 10.1029/2024jd041588
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G122673668, G1286236842, G1337544421, G1677143136, G1784256990, G223002938, G2500581015, G2886237139, G3083819904, G3130359734, CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY AND EARTH-SYSTEM INTEGRATED CLIMATE RESILIENCE CENTER {CALCEI CRC}, G419881185, G4501827968, ADVANCING THE UNDERSTANDING OF CLOUD MICROPHYSICAL PROCESSES AND AEROSOL INDIRECT EFFECTS IN HIGH-LATITUDE MIXED-PHASE CLOUDS BY LINKING ARM MEASUREMENTS WITH CLIMATE MODEL SIMULATIONS, G498139845, G5076365615, DEVELOPING PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY AND DOE LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABORATORY TO ENHANCE CLIMATE RESEARCH EQUITY AND INCLUSION, G613759197, G7787287669, G969889393
OpenAlex ID: W4409766096