The role of baroclinic activity in controlling Earth's albedo in the present and future climates.

ABSTRACT: Clouds are one of the most influential components of Earth's climate system. Specifically, the midlatitude clouds play a vital role in shaping Earth's albedo. This study investigates the connection between baroclinic activity, which dominates the midlatitude climate, and cloud-albedo and how it relates to Earth's existing hemispheric albedo symmetry. We show that baroclinic activity and cloud-albedo are highly correlated. By using Lagrangian tracking of cyclones and anticyclones and analyzing their individual cloud properties at different vertical levels, we explain why their cloud-albedo increases monotonically with intensity. We find that while for anticyclones, the relation between strength and cloudiness is mostly linear, for cyclones, in which clouds are more prevalent, the relation s

SUBMITTER: Hadas O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9945990 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature