Background

A group of faculty, staff and students at the University of Washington took part in a discussion group from 2004-2006 that read and discussed papers focusing primarily on cloud feedbacks. However, other topics, including the relationship of deep convection to lightning, were also explored. The discussion group was organized by Rob Wood and Peter Blossey.

Papers discussed

Fall 2006

Nov. 27 Williams et al. (2005): Thermodynamic conditions favorable to superlative thunderstorm updraft, mixed phase microphysics and lightning flash rate, Atmospheric Research, Vol. 76, pp. 288-306.
Nov. 6 Zipser et al. (2006): WHERE ARE THE MOST INTENSE THUNDERSTORMS ON EARTH?, BAMS, vol. 87, pp. 1057-1071.
Possible discussion papers on land vs. ocean convection:
Williams and Renno 1993. An Analysis of the Conditional Instability of the Tropical Atmosphere. MWR.
Williams and Stanfill 2002. The physical origin of the land-ocean contrast in lightning activity. Comptes Rendus Physique (abstract only). See also comment and reply in Comptes Rendus Geosciences (full text).
Williams, Chan and Boccipio 2004. Islands as miniature continents: Another look at the land-ocean lightning contrast, JGR.
Seifert and Beheng 2005. A two-moment cloud microphysics parameterization for mixed-phase clouds. Part 2: Maritime vs. continental deep convective storms. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics.
Seifert, Khain, Pokrovsky and Beheng 2006. A comparison of spectral bin and two-moment bulk mixed-phase cloud microphysics. Atmospheric Research.
Papers discussed/mentioned at organizational meeting:
Crucifix 2006, Does the Last Glacial Maximum constrain climate sensitivity?. GRL.
John and Soden 2006, Does convectively-detrained cloud ice enhance water vapor feedback?. GRL.
Soden and Held 2006, An assessment of climate feedbacks in coupled ocean-atmosphere models. J. Climate. See also Soden's Commentary on Real Climate and comment 16 by Isaac Held in particular.
Soden et al 2005, The Radiative Signature of Upper Tropospheric Moistening. Science.

Winter 2006

Williams et al. (2006): Evaluation of a component of the cloud response to climate change in an intercomparison of climate models, Climate Dynamics, vol. 26, pp. 145-165.

Fall 2005

Nov 28 Grabowski (2006): Indirect Impact of Atmospheric Aerosols in Idealized Simulations of Convective-Radiative Quasi Equilibrium, J. Climate, vol. 19, pp. 4664-4682.
Nov 14 Tsushima, Abe-Ouchi and Manabe (2005): Radiative damping of annual variation in global mean surface temperature: comparison between observed and simulated feedback, Climate Dynamics, vol. 24, pp. 591-597.
Tsushima and Manabe (2001): Influence of cloud feedback on annual variation of global mean surface temperature, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 106, Issue D19, pp. 22635-22646.
Oct 31 Bony and Dufresne (2005): Marine boundary layer clouds at the heart of cloud feedback uncertanties in climate models, Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 32, L20806.
Oct 17 Two papers on uncertainties in climate prediction:
J. M. Murphy and coauthors, 2004: Quantification of modelling uncertainties in a large ensemble of climate change simulations, Nature, vol. 430, pp. 768-772. See also supplementary information with details on parameter variation and their climate prediction index (CPI).
D. A. Stainforth and coauthors, 2005: Uncertainty in predictions of the climate response to rising levels of greenhouse gases, Nature, vol. 433, pp. 403-406. See also supplementary information.

Spring 2005

Marat Khairoutdinov, David Randall, and Charlotte DeMott, 2005: Simulations of the Atmospheric General Circulation Using a Cloud-Resolving Model as a Superparameterization of Physical Processes. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. 62, No. 7, pp. 2136-2154.
U. Lohmann, J. Feichter, 2005: Global indirect aerosol effects: a review. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 715-737.
S.J. Ghan, L.R. Leung, R.C. Easter, H. Abdul-Razzak, 1997: Prediction of cloud droplet number in a general circulation model. JGR-Atmospheres 97JD01810 Vol. 102 , No. D18 , p. 21,777
Jones, Roberts, Woodage & Johnson, 2001: Indirect sulphate aerosol forcing in a climate model with an interactive sulphur cycle. Journal of Geophysical Research, Volume 106, Issue D17, p. 20293-20310.

Winter 2005

Budyko, M I, 1969: The effect of solar radiation variations on the climate of the earth. Tellus, Vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 611-619.
Cess, R. D., 1975: Global climate change: an investigation of atmospheric feedback mechanisms. Tellus, vol. 27, p.193.
K. D. Williams, M. A. Ringer, C. A. Senior, 2003: Evaluating the cloud response to climate change and current climate variability. Climate Dynamics, Volume 20, Numbers 7-8, pp. 705 - 721.
R. Colman, 2003: A comparison of climate feedbacks in general circulation models. Climate Dynamics, Volume 20, Numbers 7-8, pp. 865-873.
R. Colman, 2001: On the vertical extent of atmospheric feedbacks. Climate Dynamics, Volume 17, Numbers 5-6, pp. 391-405.

Fall 2004

Norris, J. R., 2005: Multidecadal changes in near-global cloud cover and estimated cloud cover radiative forcing. J. Geophys. Res., 110, D08206, doi:10.1029/2004JD005600.
Thomas R. Knutson and Syukuro Manabe, 1995: Time-Mean Response over the Tropical Pacific to Increased C02 in a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Model. Journal of Climate: Vol. 8, No. 9, pp. 2181-2199.
Brian J. Soden, Anthony J. Broccoli & Richard S. Hemler, 2004: On the Use of Cloud Forcing to Estimate Cloud Feedback. Journal of Climate: Vol. 17, No. 19, pp. 3661-3665.
Syukuro Manabe and Richard T. Wetherald, 1967: Thermal Equilibrium of the Atmosphere with a Given Distribution of Relative Humidity. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 241-259.
Alan K. Betts, W. Ridgway, 1989: Climatic Equilibrium of the Atmospheric Convective Boundary Layer over a Tropical Ocean. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. 46, No. 17, pp. 2621-2641.

Spring 2004

Dennis L. Hartmann, Leslie A. Moy, and Qiang Fu, 2001: Tropical Convection and the Energy Balance at the Top of the Atmosphere. Journal of Climate: Vol. 14, No. 24, pp. 4495-4511. See also this paper on the Fixed Anvil Temperature (FAT) hypothesis.
Cess, R. D.; Potter, G. L.; Blanchet, J. P.; Boer, G. J.; Ghan, S. J.; Kiehl, J. T.; Le Treut, H.; Li, Z.-X.; Liang, X.-Z.; Mitchell, J. F. B.; Morcrette, J.-J.; Randall, D. A.; Riches, M. R.; Roeckner, E.; Schlese, U.; Slingo, A.; Taylor, K. E.; Washington, W. M.; Wetherald, R. T.; Yagai, I., 1989: Interpretation of Cloud-Climate Feedback as Produced by 14 Atmospheric General Circulation Models. Science, Volume 245, Issue 4917, pp. 513-516 See also this updated intercomparison from 1996.
K. D. Williams, M. A. Ringer, C. A. Senior, 2003: Evaluating the cloud response to climate change and current climate variability. Climate Dynamics, Volume 20, Numbers 7-8, pp. 705 - 721.
Y. Tsushima, A. Abe-Ouchi and S. Manabe, 2005: Radiative damping of annual variation in global mean surface temperature: comparison between observed and simulated feedback. Climate Dynamics, Volume 24, Number 6, pp. 591 - 597.
W. Y. Lin and M. H. Zhang, 2004: Evaluation of Clouds and Their Radiative Effects Simulated by the NCAR Community Atmospheric Model Against Satellite Observations. Journal of Climate: Vol. 17, No. 17, pp. 3302-3318.
Three papers on the 1997/98 El Nino:
Riyu Lu, Buwen Dong, Robert D. Cess, Gerald L. Potter, 2004: The 1997/98 El Nino: A test for climate models. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 31, L12216, doi:10.1029/2004GL019956.
Cess, Zhang, Wielicki, Young, Zhou and Nikitenko, 2001: The Influence of the 1998 El Niño upon Cloud-Radiative Forcing over the Pacific Warm Pool. Journal of Climate: Vol. 14, No. 9, pp. 2129-2137.
Cess RD, Zhang MG, Wang PH, et al., 2001: Cloud structure anomalies over the tropical Pacific during the 1997/98 El Nino. Geophysical Research Letters 28 (24): 4547-4550.

Winter 2004

Anthony D. Del Genio, William Kovari, 2002: Climatic Properties of Tropical Precipitating Convection under Varying Environmental Conditions. Journal of Climate: Vol. 15, No. 18, pp. 2597-2615.
J.T. Kiehl, 1994: On the Observed Near Cancellation between Longwave and Shortwave Cloud Forcing in Tropical Regions. Journal of Climate: Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 559-565.
Bruce A. Wielicki, Takmeng Wong, Richard P. Allan, Anthony Slingo, Jeffrey T. Kiehl, Brian J. Soden, C. T. Gordon, Alvin J. Miller, Shi-Keng Yang, David A. Randall, Franklin Robertson, Joel Susskind, Herbert Jacobowitz, 2002: Evidence for Large Decadal Variability in the Tropical Mean Radiative Energy Budget. Science, Vol 295, Issue 5556, 841-844.
C.A. Senior and J.F.B. Mitchell, 1993: Carbon Dioxide and Climate. The Impact of Cloud Parameterization. Journal of Climate: Vol. 6, No. 3, pp. 393-418.
S. Bony, J.-L. Dufresne, H. Le Treut, J.-J. Morcrette and C. Senior, 2004: On dynamic and thermodynamic components of cloud changes. Climate Dynamics, Volume 22, Numbers 2-3, pp. 71 - 86.
Adrian M. Tompkins and George C. Craig, 1999: Sensitivity of Tropical Convection to Sea Surface Temperature in the Absence of Large-Scale Flow. Journal of Climate: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 462-476. See also this QJRMS paper

Review papers and other papers of interest

Bony S. and coauthors, 2006: How well do we understand and evaluate climate change feedback processes?, J. Climate, vol. 19, pp. 3445-3482.
Graeme L. Stephens, 2005: Cloud Feedbacks in the Climate System: A Critical Review. Journal of Climate: Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 237-273.
Zhang M, Cloud-climate feedback: How much do we know? In Observation, Theory, and Modeling of Atmospheric Variability: Selected Papers of Nanjing... edited by Xun Zhu, Xiaofan Li, Shuntai Zhou, Yuejian Zhu, Fei-Fei Jin, Ming Cai, Minghua Zhang, Xiaolei Zou
Isaac M. Held and Brian J. Soden, 2000: Water vapor feedback and global warming. Annual Review of Energy and the Environment Vol. 25: 441-475.
R.T. Pierrehumbert, 1995: Thermostats, Radiator Fins, and the Local Runaway Greenhouse. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences: Vol. 52, No. 10, pp. 1784-1806.
Wyant, M. C., C. S. Bretherton, J. T. Bacmeister, J. T. Kiehl, I. M. Held, M. Zhao, S. A. Klein, B. J. Soden, 2005: A Comparison of Low-Latitude Cloud Properties and Responses in AGCMs Sorted into Regimes using Mid-Tropospheric Vertical Velocity. Submitted to Climate Dynamics.

Background

Papers discussed

Review papers and other papers of interest

Recent papers and preprints of interest