Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

Sandrine Bony; Bjorn Stevens; Dargan M W Frierson; Christian Jakob; Masa Kageyama; Robert Pincus; Theodore G Shepherd; Steven Crichton Sherwood; A Pier Siebesma; Adam H Sobel; Masahiro Watanabe; Mark J Webb

doi:10.1038/ngeo2398

Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

Sandrine Bony, Bjorn Stevens, Dargan M W Frierson, Christian Jakob, Masa Kageyama, Robert Pincus, Theodore G Shepherd, Steven Crichton Sherwood, A Pier Siebesma, Adam H Sobel, Masahiro Watanabe, Mark J Webb

School of Earth Atmosphere and Environment

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review

733 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fundamental puzzles of climate science remain unsolved because of our limited understanding of how clouds, circulation and climate interact. One example is our inability to provide robust assessments of future global and regional climate changes. However, ongoing advances in our capacity to observe, simulate and conceptualize the climate system now make it possible to fill gaps in our knowledge. We argue that progress can be accelerated by focusing research on a handful of important scientific questions that have become tractable as a result of recent advances. We propose four such questions below; they involve understanding the role of cloud feedbacks and convective organization in climate, and the factors that control the position, the strength and the variability of the tropical rain belts and the extratropical storm tracks.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	261 - 268
Number of pages	8
Journal	Nature Geoscience
Volume	8
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2398
Publication status	Published - 2015

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10.1038/ngeo2398

Cite this

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abstract = "Fundamental puzzles of climate science remain unsolved because of our limited understanding of how clouds, circulation and climate interact. One example is our inability to provide robust assessments of future global and regional climate changes. However, ongoing advances in our capacity to observe, simulate and conceptualize the climate system now make it possible to fill gaps in our knowledge. We argue that progress can be accelerated by focusing research on a handful of important scientific questions that have become tractable as a result of recent advances. We propose four such questions below; they involve understanding the role of cloud feedbacks and convective organization in climate, and the factors that control the position, the strength and the variability of the tropical rain belts and the extratropical storm tracks.",

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doi = "10.1038/ngeo2398",

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AU - Bony, Sandrine

AU - Stevens, Bjorn

AU - Frierson, Dargan M W

AU - Jakob, Christian

AU - Kageyama, Masa

AU - Pincus, Robert

AU - Shepherd, Theodore G

AU - Sherwood, Steven Crichton

AU - Siebesma, A Pier

AU - Sobel, Adam H

AU - Watanabe, Masahiro

AU - Webb, Mark J

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - Fundamental puzzles of climate science remain unsolved because of our limited understanding of how clouds, circulation and climate interact. One example is our inability to provide robust assessments of future global and regional climate changes. However, ongoing advances in our capacity to observe, simulate and conceptualize the climate system now make it possible to fill gaps in our knowledge. We argue that progress can be accelerated by focusing research on a handful of important scientific questions that have become tractable as a result of recent advances. We propose four such questions below; they involve understanding the role of cloud feedbacks and convective organization in climate, and the factors that control the position, the strength and the variability of the tropical rain belts and the extratropical storm tracks.

AB - Fundamental puzzles of climate science remain unsolved because of our limited understanding of how clouds, circulation and climate interact. One example is our inability to provide robust assessments of future global and regional climate changes. However, ongoing advances in our capacity to observe, simulate and conceptualize the climate system now make it possible to fill gaps in our knowledge. We argue that progress can be accelerated by focusing research on a handful of important scientific questions that have become tractable as a result of recent advances. We propose four such questions below; they involve understanding the role of cloud feedbacks and convective organization in climate, and the factors that control the position, the strength and the variability of the tropical rain belts and the extratropical storm tracks.

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Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

Abstract

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ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science

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Clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity

Abstract

UN SDGs

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ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science

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