Atmospheric Radiative Cooling and Precipitation
Charlotte Connolly, Alexandra Naegele , David Randall
Abstract
The meridionally varying effects of global warming on Atmospheric Radiation Cooling (ARC) and precipitation are studied through the use of CMIP5 model output. Past studies have shown that, when globally averaged, changes in precipitation are more closely related to changes in clear-sky ARC than to changes in all-sky ARC. Looking at global means across the ensemble of CMIP5 models, we find that the correlations of precipitation with clear-sky ARC and all-sky ARC are nearly equal. The relations between the zonally averaged changes are complex and depend strongly on latitude. At most latitudes precipitation and all-sky ARC change inversely. For example, in the tropics the all-sky ARC changes very little, but the precipitation change is larger than anywhere else. The change in the ARC has a local maximum in the subtropics, where the change in precipitation is smaller. In the Arctic, precipitation increases due to the poleward shift of the storm tracks, and the changes of the ARC and precipitation are highly seasonal with roughly simultaneous maxima in the fall.
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