Small-scale cloud processes characterized: Will improve climate projections

Researchers recently used the unique capabilities of EMSL – including its Chinook supercomputer – to study the types of clouds over the oceans, which are critical for climate projections. Most current climate models take the variety of clouds that form over the oceans and average them out to a single type – stratocumulus clouds or cumulus clouds – which cover tens to hundreds of kilometers. However, distinct cloud types have different effects on how much of the sun’s energy reaches the sea surface, which may introduce errors into large-scale climate models.

That’s what the researchers confirmed. Specifically, they found climate models that simply averaged one type of cloud underestimated the actual amount of ocean cloud cover, which in turn led to an overestimation of how much of the sun’s energy was reaching the ocean. Researchers also found that such models underestimate both temperature variations and movement in the cloud layer. This leads models to predict a quicker change from flattened stratocumulus clouds to the puffy cumulus clouds and also introduces uncertainties into climate projections. These findings at EMSL could lead to more accurate climate projections.