Cirrus cloud horizontal and vertical inhomogeneity effects in a GCM

Summary A set of the inhomogeneity factor for high-level clouds derived from the ISCCP D1 dataset averaged over a five-year period has been incorporated in the UCLA atmospheric GCM to investigate the effect of cirrus cloud inhomogeneity on climate simulation. The inclusion of this inhomogeneous factor improves the global mean planetary albedo by about 4% simulated from the model. It also produces changes in solar fluxes and OLRs associated with changes in cloud fields, revealing that the cloud inhomogeneity not only affects cloud albedo directly, but also modifies cloud and radiation fields. The corresponding difference in the geographic distribution of precipitation is as large as 7 mm day⁻¹. Using the climatology cloud inhomogeneity factor also produces a warmer troposphere related to changes in the cloudiness and the corresponding radiative heating, which, to some extent, corrects the cold bias in the UCLA AGCM. The region around 14 km, however, is cooler associated with increase in the reflected solar flux that leads to a warmer region above. An interactive parameterization for mean effective ice crystal size based on ice water content and temperature has also been developed and incorporated in the UCLA AGCM. The inclusion of the new parameterization produces substantial differences in the zonal mean temperature and the geographic distribution of precipitation, radiative fluxes, and cloud cover with respect to the control run. The vertical distribution of ice crystal size appears to be an important factor controlling the radiative heating rate and the consequence of circulation patterns, and hence must be included in the cloud-radiation parameterization in climate models to account for realistic cloud processes in the atmosphere.