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Minimal recipes for global cloudiness
  • +4
  • George Datseris,
  • Joaquin Blanco,
  • Or Hadas,
  • Sadrine Bony,
  • Rodrigo Caballero,
  • Yohai Kaspi,
  • Bjorn Stevens
George Datseris
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Max Planck Institute for Meteorology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Joaquin Blanco
Stockholm University, Stockholm University
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Or Hadas
Weizmann Institute of Science, Weizmann Institute of Science
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Sadrine Bony
Sorbonne University, Sorbonne University
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Rodrigo Caballero
Stockholm University, Stockholm University
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Yohai Kaspi
Weizmann Institute of Science, Weizmann Institute of Science
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Bjorn Stevens
Max Plank Institute for Meteorology, Max Plank Institute for Meteorology
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Abstract

Clouds are primary modulators of Earth's energy balance. It is thus important to understand the links connecting variabilities in cloudiness to variabilities in other state variables of the climate system, and also describe how these links would change in a changing climate. A conceptual model of global cloudiness can help elucidate these points. In this work we derive simple representations of cloudiness, that can be useful in creating a theory of global cloudiness. These representations illustrate how both spatial and temporal variability of cloudiness can be expressed in terms of basic state variables. Specifically, cloud albedo is captured by a nonlinear combination of pressure velocity and a measure of the low-level stability, and cloud longwave effect is captured by surface temperature, pressure velocity, and standard deviation of pressure velocity. We conclude with a short discussion on the usefulness of this work in the context of global warming response studies.