Cloudiness over the Southern Ocean - reducing a key knowledge gap and source of climate model uncertainty

The Southern Ocean is a key region for global climate. Clouds strongly influence the ocean surface energy balance thereby affecting important ocean processes. Southern Ocean clouds are poorly represented in weather and climate models leading to large uncertainties in our estimates of the response of the climate system to increases in greenhouse gases. The poor simulation of Southern Ocean clouds goes hand in hand with a poor understanding of the processes that determine their characteristics. The proposed research will apply new data sets and analysis techniques to better understand key Southern Ocean cloud regimes and apply the knowledge gained to improve their representation in the Australian Community Climate and Earth System Simulator.