Opposing trends of cloud coverage over land and ocean under global warming
<p>Clouds play a key role in Earth's energy budget and water cycle. Their response to global warming contributes the largest uncertainty to climate prediction. Here, by performing an empirical orthogonal function analysis on 42 years of reanalysis data of global cloud coverage, we extract...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/23/6559/2023/acp-23-6559-2023.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Clouds play a key role in Earth's energy budget and water
cycle. Their response to global warming contributes the largest uncertainty
to climate prediction. Here, by performing an empirical orthogonal function
analysis on 42 years of reanalysis data of global cloud coverage, we extract
an unambiguous trend and El-Niño–Southern-Oscillation-associated modes.
The trend mode translates spatially to decreasing trends in cloud coverage
over most continents and increasing trends over the tropical and subtropical
oceans. A reduction in near-surface relative humidity can explain the
decreasing trends in cloud coverage over land. Our results suggest potential
stress on the terrestrial water cycle and changes in the energy partition
between land and ocean, all associated with global warming.</p> |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |