Ocean-Atmosphere Feedback and Cloud-Radiation Feedback in Southeastern Pacific simulated by 24 IPCC AR4 Coupled GCMs

This study examines the ocean-atmosphere feedback and cloud-radiation feedback under the stratocumulus cloud deck in the southeastern Pacific simulated by 24 coupled general circulation models (GCMs) participating in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fouth Assessment Report (AR4). Three key feedback mechanisms are studied: the sea surface temperature (SST)-coastal upwelling feedback, the SST-latent heat flux feedback, and the SST-stratocumulus cloud feedback. It is discovered that many IPCC AR4 models have difficulties in simulating the above feedbacks, which is associated with the models cloud and convection parameterizations. Detailed results will be presented at the conference.