(In) consistency of air/sea heat flux estimates,ocean heat uptake anomalies and top of atmosphere radiation budgets

This paper introduces the consistency between top of atmosphere(TOA) imbalances and ocean heat uptake,and the inconsistency between ocean heat uptake estimates and flux climatologies,and then gives some recommendations and outlook.

Simulation of arctic surface radiation and energy budget during the summertime using the single-column model

The surface heat budget of the Arctic Ocean （SHEBA） project has shown that the study of the surface heat budget characteristics is crucial to understanding the interface process and environmental change in the polar region. An arctic single - column model （ARCSCM） of Colorado University is used to simulate the arctic surface radiation and energy budget during the summertime. The simulation results are analyzed and compared with the SHEBA measurements. Sensitivity analyses are performed to test microphysical and radiative parameterizations in this model. The results show that the ARCSCM model is able to simulate the surface radiation and energy budget in the arctic during the summertime, and the different parameterizations have a significant influence on the results. The combination of cloud microphysics and RRTM parameterizations can fairly derive the surface solar shortwave radiation and downwelling longwave radiation flux. But this cloud microphysics parameterization scheme deviates notably from the simulation of surface sensible and latent heat flux. Further improvement for the parameterization scheme applied to the Arctic Regions is necessary.

On the Solar Climate of the Moon and the Resulting Surface Temperature Distribution

The solar climate of our Moon is analyzed using the results of numerical simulations and the recently released data of the Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment (DLRE) to assess (a) the resulting distribution of the surface temperature, (b) the related global mean surface temperature Ts>, and (c) the effective radiation temperature Te often considered as a proxy for Ts> of rocky planets and/or their natural satellites, where Te is based on the global radiation budget of the well-known “thought model” of the Earth in the absence of its atmosphere. Because the Moon consists of similar rocky material like the Earth, it comes close to this thought model. However, the Moon’s astronomical features (e.g., obliquity, angular velocity of rotation, position relative to the disc of the solar system) differ from that of the Earth. Being tidally locked to the Earth, the Moon’s orbit around the Sun shows additional variation as compared to the Earth’s orbit. Since the astronomical parameters affect the solar climate, we predicted the Moon’s orbit coordinates both relative to the Sun and the Earth for a period of 20 lunations starting May 24, 2009, 00:00 UT1 with the planetary and lunar ephemeris DE430 of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the California Institute of Technology. The results revealed a mean heliocentric distance for the Moon and Earth of 1.00124279 AU and 1.00166376 AU, respectively. The mean geocentric distance of the Moon was 384792 km. The synodic and draconic months deviated from their respective means in a range of -5.7 h to 6.9 h and ±3.4 h, respectively. The deviations of the anomalistic months from their mean range between -2.83 d and 0.97 d with the largest negative deviations occurring around the points of inflection in the curve that represents the departure of the synodic month from its mean. Based on the two successive passages of the Sun through the ascending node of the lunar equator plane, the time interval between them corresponds to 347.29 days, i.e., it is slightly longer than the mean draconic year of 346.62 days. We computed the local solar insolation as input to the multilayer-force restore method of Kramm et al. (2017) that is based on the local energy budget equation. Due to the need to spin up the distribution of the regolith temperature to equilibrium, analysis of the model results covers only the last 12 lunations starting January 15, 2010, 07:11 UT1. The predicted slab temperatures, Tslab, considered as the realistic surface temperatures, follow the bolometric temperatures, Tbol, acceptably. According to all 24 DLRE datasets related to the subsolar longitude øss, the global averages of the bolometric temperature amounts to Tbol=201.1k± 0.6K. Based on the globally averaged emitted infrared radiation of FIR>=290.5W·m-2± 3.0W·m-2 derived from the 24 DLRE datasets, the effective radiative temperature of the Moon is Te, M>=Tbol>1/4=271.0k± 0.7K so that Tbol>≅0.742Te, M. The DLRE observations suggest that in the case of rocky planets and their natural satellites, the globally averaged surface temperature is notably lower than the effective radiation temperature. They differ by a factor that depends on the astronomical parameters especially on the angular velocity of rotation.

Evaluating the impacts of land use and land cover changes on surface air temperature using the WRF-mosaic approach

Satellite-derived land surface data in 1980 and 2010 were used to represent land use and land cover（LULC） changes caused by the rapid economic development and human activities that have occurred over the past few decades in East Asia and China. The effects of LULC changes on the radiation budget and 2-m surface air temperature（SAT） were explored for the period using the Weather Research and Forecasting（WRF） model. The mosaic approach, which considers the N-most abundant land use types within a model grid cell（here, N = 3） and precisely describes the subgridscale LULC changes, was adopted in the integrations. The impacts of LULC changes based on two 36-year integrations showed that SAT generally decreased, with the sole exception being over eastern China, resulting in decreased SAT in China（-0.062 °C） and East Asian land areas（EAL,-0.061 °C）. The LULC changes induced changes in albedo, which influenced the radiation budget. The radiative forcings at the top of the atmosphere were-0.56 W m-2 across the whole of China, and-0.50 W m-2 over EAL. Meanwhile, the altered roughness length mainly influenced near-surface wind speeds, large-scale and upward moisture fluxes, latent heat fluxes, and cloud fractions at different altitudes. Though the impacts caused by the LULC changes were generally smaller at regional scales, the values at local scales were much stronger.

Using Earth’s Moon as a Testbed for Quantifying the Effect of the Terrestrial Atmosphere

In the past, the planetary radiation balance served to quantify the atmospheric greenhouse effect by the difference between the globally averaged near-surface temperature of and the respective effective radiation temperature of the Earth without atmosphere of resulting in . Since such a “thought experiment” prohibits any rigorous assessment of its results, this study considered the Moon as a testbed for the Earth in the absence of its atmosphere. Since the angular velocity of Moon’s rotation is 27.4 times slower than that of the Earth, the forcing method, the force-restore method, and a multilayer-force-restore method, used in climate modeling during the past four decades, were alternatively applied to address the influence of the angular velocity in determining the Moon’s globally averaged skin (or slab) temperature, . The multilayer-force-restore method always provides?the highest values for , followed by the force-restore method and the forcing method, but the differences are marginal. Assuming a solar albedo of , a relative emissivity , and a solar constant of and applying the multilayer-force-restore method yielded and for the Moon. Using the same values for α, ε, and S, but assuming the Earth’s angular velocity for the Moon yielded and quantifying the effect of the terrestrial atmosphere by . A sensitivity study for a solar albedo of commonly assumed for the Earth in the absence of its atmosphere yielded , , and . This means that the atmospheric effect would be more than twice as large as the aforementioned difference of 33 K. To generalize the findings, twelve synodic months (i.e., 354 Earth days) and 365 Earth days, where , a Sun-zenith-distance dependent solar albedo, and the variation of the solar radiation in dependence of the actual orbit position and the tilt angle of the corresponding rotation axis to the ecliptic were considered. The case of Moon’s true angular velocity yielded and . Whereas Earth’s 27.4 times higher angular velocity yielded , and . In both cases, the effective radiation temperature is ,?because the computed global albedo is . Thus, the effective radiation temperature yields flawed results when used for quantifying the atmospheric greenhouse effect.

An evaluation of the Arctic clouds and surface radiative fluxes in CMIP6 models

To assess the performances of state-of-the-art global climate models on simulating the Arctic clouds and surface radiation balance,the 2001–2014 Arctic Basin surface radiation budget,clouds,and the cloud radiative effects(CREs)in 22 coupled model intercomparison project 6(CMIP6)models are evaluated against satellite observations.For the results from CMIP6 multi-model mean,cloud fraction(CF)peaks in autumn and is lowest in winter and spring,consistent with that from three satellite observation products(Cloud Sat-CALIPSO,CERESMODIS,and APP-x).Simulated CF also shows consistent spatial patterns with those in observations.However,almost all models overestimate the CF amount throughout the year when compared to CERES-MODIS and APP-x.On average,clouds warm the surface of the Arctic Basin mainly via the longwave(LW)radiation cloud warming effect in winter.Simulated surface energy loss of LW is less than that in CERES-EBAF observation,while the net surface shortwave(SW)flux is underestimated.The biases may result from the stronger cloud LW warming effect and SW cooling effect from the overestimated CF by the models.These two biases compensate each other,yielding similar net surface radiation flux between model output(3.0 W/m2)and CERES-EBAF observation(6.1 W/m2).During 2001–2014,significant increasing trend of spring CF is found in the multi-model mean,consistent with previous studies based on surface and satellite observations.Although most of the 22 CMIP6 models show common seasonal cycles of CF and liquid water path/ice water path(LWP/IWP),large inter-model spreads exist in the amounts of CF and LWP/IWP throughout the year,indicating the influences of different cloud parameterization schemes used in different models.Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project(CFMIP)observation simulator package(COSP)is a great tool to accurately assess the performance of climate models on simulating clouds.More intuitive and credible evaluation results can be obtained based on the COSP model output.In the future,with the release of more COSP output of CMIP6 models,it is expected that those inter-model spreads and the model-observation biases can be substantially reduced.Longer term active satellite observations are also necessary to evaluate models’cloud simulations and to further explore the role of clouds in the rapid Arctic climate changes.

Energy Balance of Irrigated Intercropping Field in the Middle Reaches of Heihe River Basin

Based on the experiments conducted in an irrigated intercropping field in Zhangye Oasis in the middle reaches of Heihe River basin in 2004, the characteristics of radiation budget are analyzed. Furthermore, energy balance is cal- culated by using Bowen-Ratio Energy Balance (BREB) method. The results show that the ratio of the absorbed radiation to the incoming short radiation in intercropping crop canopy-soil system is increasing with growing stages, from 0.81 in the initial growing stage (IGS) to 0.86 in the late growing stage (LGS). The net radiation, which is smaller in IGS, in- creases rapidly in the first period of the middle growing stage (MGS) and reaches the maximum value in the second period of MGS. It then somewhat decreases in LGS. The ratio of net radiation to total radiation has a similar trend with the net radiation. In the whole growing stages, latent heat flux, which takes up 70% or so of the net radiation, is the dominant item in energy balance. Sensible heat flux shares 20% of the net radiation and soil heat flux has a percentage of 10%. The characteristics of heat balance vary distinctly in different growing stages. In IGS, the ratios of latent heat flux, sensible heat flux and soil heat flux to net radiation are 44.5%, 23.8% and 31.7% respectively. In MGS, with the in- creasing of latent heat flux and the decreasing of sensible heat flux and soil heat flux, the ratios turn into 84.4%, 6.3% and 9.3%. In LGS, the soil heat flux maintains 0W/m2 or so, and latent heat flux and sensible heat flux take up 61.4% and 38.6% respectively. The energy balance also shows an obvious daily variation characteristic.

Remote sensing of earth’s energy budget:synthesis and review

The Earth’s climate is largely determined by its energy budget.Since the 1960s,satellite remote sensing has been used in estimating these energy budget components at both the top of the atmosphere(TOA)and the surface.Besides the broadband sensors that have been traditionally used for monitoring Earth’s Energy Budget(EEB),data from a variety of narrowband sensors aboard both polar-orbiting and geostationary satellites have also been extensively employed to estimate the EEB components.This paper provides a comprehensive review of the satellite missions,state-of-the art estimation algorithms and the satellite products,and also synthesizes current understanding of the EEB and spatiotemporal variations.The TOA components include total solar irradiance,reflected shortwave radiation/planetary albedo,outgoing longwave radiation,and energy imbalance.The surface components include incident solar radiation,shortwave albedo,shortwave net radiation,longwave downward and upwelling radiation,land and sea surface temperature,surface emissivity,all-wave net radiation,and sensible and latent heat fluxes.Some challenges,and outlook such as virtual constellation of different satellite sensors,temporal homogeneity tests of long time-series products,algorithms ensemble,and products intercomparison are also discussed.

Estimating high-spatial resolution surface daily longwave radiation from the instantaneous Global LAnd Surface Satellite(GLASS)longwave radiation product

In this paper,time extension methods,originally designed for clear-sky land surface conditions,are used to estimate high-spatial resolution surface daily longwave(LW)radiation from the instantaneous Global LAnd Surface Satellite(GLASS)longwave radiation product.The performance of four time methods were first tested by using ground based flux measurements that were collected from 141 global sites.Combined with the accuracy of daily LW radiation estimated from the instantaneous GLASS LW radiation,the linear sine interpolation method performs better than the other methods and was employed to estimate the daily LW radiation as follows:The bias/Root Mean Square Error(RMSE)of the linear sine interpolation method were−6.30/15.10 W/m^(2)for the daily longwave upward radiation(LWUP),−1.65/27.63 W/m2 for the daily longwave downward radiation(LWDN),and 4.69/26.42 W/m^(2)for the daily net longwave radiation(LWNR).We found that the lengths of the diurnal cycle of LW radiation are longer than the durations between sunrise and sunset and we proposed increasing the day length by 1.5 h.The accuracies of daily LW radiation were improved after adjusting the day length.The bias/RMSE were−4.15/13.74 W/m2 for the daily LWUP,−1.3/27.52 W/m^(2)for the daily LWDN,and 2.85/25.91 W/m^(2)for the daily LWNR.We are producing long-term surface daily LW radiation values from the GLASS LW radiation product.

Regional Characteristics of Cloud Radiative Effects before and after the South China Sea Summer Monsoon Onset

The South China Sea summer monsoon(SCSSM)onset is characterized by rapid thermodynamical changes in the atmosphere that are critical to regional weather and climate processes.So far,few studies have focused on the changes in the associated cloud and radiative features.This study investigates spatiotemporal characteristics of topof-atmosphere(TOA)cloud radiative effects(CREs)before and after the SCSSM onset over the South China Sea(SCS)and South China(SC),based on the 2001–2016 Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System(CERES)Energy Balanced and Filled(EBAF)satellite data and ERA-Interim reanalysis data.Before the SCSSM onset,strong net CRE(NCRE)dominated by its cooling shortwave component occurs over SC,while descending motion and weak NCRE prevail over the SCS.In the SCSSM onset pentad,convection,high clouds,and longwave and shortwave CREs(LWCRE and SWCRE)abruptly increase over the southern and central SCS,and their high-value centers subsequently move northeastward and are strongly affected by the western Pacific subtropical high.The strong offset between LWCRE and SWCRE enables the NCRE intensity(TOA radiation budget)to be quite small(large)between the SCS and the western North Pacific after the SCSSM onset.In contrast,low–middle-level clouds and strong cooling SWCRE remain over SC after the SCSSM onset,but the increasing high clouds and LWCRE weaken(intensify)the regional NCRE(TOA radiation budget)intensity.These marked latitudinal differences in CREs between the SCS and SC primarily arise from their respective dominant cloud types and circulation conditions,which manifest the differences between the tropical SCSSM and subtropical East Asian monsoon processes.The results indicate that regional cloud fractions and CREs before and after the SCSSM onset are strongly modulated by quickly changed largescale circulation over the East Asian monsoon regions,and the spatiotemporal variation of CREs is a response to the monsoonal circulation adjustment to a large extent.