Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks
Traditional feedback analyses, which assume that individual climate feedback mechanisms act independently and add linearly, suggest that clouds do not contribute to Arctic amplification. However, feedback locking experiments, in which the cloud feedback is disabled, suggest that clouds, particularly...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research: Climate |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ada84b |
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| author | David B Bonan Jennifer E Kay Nicole Feldl Mark D Zelinka |
| author_facet | David B Bonan Jennifer E Kay Nicole Feldl Mark D Zelinka |
| author_sort | David B Bonan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Traditional feedback analyses, which assume that individual climate feedback mechanisms act independently and add linearly, suggest that clouds do not contribute to Arctic amplification. However, feedback locking experiments, in which the cloud feedback is disabled, suggest that clouds, particularly outside of the Arctic, do contribute to Arctic amplification. Here, we reconcile these two perspectives by introducing a framework that quantifies the interactions between radiative feedbacks, radiative forcing, ocean heat uptake, and atmospheric heat transport. We show that including the cloud feedback in a comprehensive climate model can result in Arctic amplification because of interactions with other radiative feedbacks. The surface temperature change associated with including the cloud feedback is amplified in the Arctic by the surface-albedo, Planck, and lapse-rate feedbacks. A moist energy balance model with a locked cloud feedback exhibits similar behavior as the comprehensive climate model with a disabled cloud feedback and further indicates that the mid-latitude cloud feedback contributes to Arctic amplification via feedback interactions. Feedback locking in the moist energy balance model also suggests that the mid-latitude cloud feedback contributes substantially to the intermodel spread in Arctic amplification across comprehensive climate models. These results imply that constraining the mid-latitude cloud feedback will greatly reduce the intermodel spread in Arctic amplification. Furthermore, these results highlight a previously unrecognized non-local pathway for Arctic amplification. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f6afaffb0c40453c9e0f624b2ed137ca |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2752-5295 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | Environmental Research: Climate |
| spelling | doaj-art-f6afaffb0c40453c9e0f624b2ed137ca2025-01-21T13:57:09ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research: Climate2752-52952025-01-014101500110.1088/2752-5295/ada84bMid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacksDavid B Bonan0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3867-6009Jennifer E Kay1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3625-5377Nicole Feldl2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2631-1419Mark D Zelinka3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6570-5445Department of Atmospheric and Climate Science, University of Washington , Seattle, WA, United States of AmericaDepartment of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO, United States of America; Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado , Boulder, CO, United States of AmericaDepartment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz , Santa Cruz, CA, United States of AmericaLawrence Livermore National Laboratory , Livermore, CA, United States of AmericaTraditional feedback analyses, which assume that individual climate feedback mechanisms act independently and add linearly, suggest that clouds do not contribute to Arctic amplification. However, feedback locking experiments, in which the cloud feedback is disabled, suggest that clouds, particularly outside of the Arctic, do contribute to Arctic amplification. Here, we reconcile these two perspectives by introducing a framework that quantifies the interactions between radiative feedbacks, radiative forcing, ocean heat uptake, and atmospheric heat transport. We show that including the cloud feedback in a comprehensive climate model can result in Arctic amplification because of interactions with other radiative feedbacks. The surface temperature change associated with including the cloud feedback is amplified in the Arctic by the surface-albedo, Planck, and lapse-rate feedbacks. A moist energy balance model with a locked cloud feedback exhibits similar behavior as the comprehensive climate model with a disabled cloud feedback and further indicates that the mid-latitude cloud feedback contributes to Arctic amplification via feedback interactions. Feedback locking in the moist energy balance model also suggests that the mid-latitude cloud feedback contributes substantially to the intermodel spread in Arctic amplification across comprehensive climate models. These results imply that constraining the mid-latitude cloud feedback will greatly reduce the intermodel spread in Arctic amplification. Furthermore, these results highlight a previously unrecognized non-local pathway for Arctic amplification.https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ada84bArctic amplificationcloud feedbacksclimate changeclimate models |
| spellingShingle | David B Bonan Jennifer E Kay Nicole Feldl Mark D Zelinka Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks Environmental Research: Climate Arctic amplification cloud feedbacks climate change climate models |
| title | Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks |
| title_full | Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks |
| title_fullStr | Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks |
| title_short | Mid-latitude clouds contribute to Arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks |
| title_sort | mid latitude clouds contribute to arctic amplification via interactions with other climate feedbacks |
| topic | Arctic amplification cloud feedbacks climate change climate models |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-5295/ada84b |
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