Document Type
Article
Publication Date
October 2016
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume
43
Issue Number
20
First Page
11039
Last Page
11047
DOI
10.1002/2016GL071144
Disciplines
Climate
Abstract
We use aircraft observations combined with the reanalysis data to investigate the radiative effects of ice supersaturation (ISS). Our results show that although the excess water vapor over ice saturation itself has relatively small radiative effects, mistaking it as ice crystals in climate models would lead to considerable impacts: on average, +2.49 W/m2 change in the top of the atmosphere (TOA) radiation, −2.7 W/m2 change in surface radiation, and 1.47 K/d change in heating rates. The radiative effects of ISS generally increase with the magnitudes of supersaturation. However, there is a strong dependence on the preexisting ice water path, which can even change the sign of the TOA radiative effect. It is therefore important to consider coexistence between ISS and ice clouds and to validate their relationship in the parameterizations of ISS in climate models.
Recommended Citation
Xiaoxiao Tan, Yi Huang, Minghui Diao, Aaron Bansemer, Mark Zondlo, Joshua DiGangi, Rainer Volkamer, and Yongyun Hu. "An assessment of the radiative effects of ice supersaturation based on in situ observations" Geophysical Research Letters (2016): 11039-11047. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071144
Comments
This article originally appeared in Geophysical Research Letters, volume 43, issue 20, 2016. © 2016 American Geophysical Union. This work can also be found online at this link http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071144
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