Cloud radiative forcing of the low-latitude tropospheric circulation: Linear calculations

The role of clouds for low-latitude atmospheric circulations is examined in a linearized calculation forced by diabatic heating rates. A comparison of the circulation calculated from total diabatic heating, obtained from reanalysis data, with observed fields determines which aspects of the calculation are realistic and which are not. The rule of clouds is quantified by the circulation calculated from atmospheric cloud radiative forcing, which, in turn, has been calculated with the National Center for Atmospheric Research radiative transfer model using cloud properties observed in the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. In general, cloud radiative forcing contributes about 20% to the magnitude of low-latitude circulations. It typically reinforces the circulation that is driven by convective latent heating. Cloud radiative forcing tends to have a stronger influence in the lower troposphere than at upper levels. It influences local circulations more than remote ones. In particular, cloud radiative forcing from local low cloud cover is the dominant source of diabatic heating influencing subtropical circulations over the eastern oceans. Cloud radiative forcing from low clouds is also found to be important for seasonal variations of meridional winds over the cold tongue in the eastern Pacific. This indicates that atmospheric cloud radiative forcing, and not just surface forcing, is important for ocean-atmospheric coupling there. Additional calculations are performed that test the sensitivity of the atmospheric circulation to different sources of diabatic heating rates. These sources include radiative heating rates that have been calculated from different cloud data, different cloud overlap assumptions, and enhanced cloud short-wave absorptivity. The principal conclusions of this investigation are unchanged by these calculations. However, enhanced short-wave absorption by clouds systematically reduces the impact of clouds on atmospheric circulations.