Affiliation:
1. AOSC & ESSIC University of Maryland at College Park College Park MD USA
2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore CA USA
3. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Science University of Houston Houston TX USA
4. Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science University of Houston Houston TX USA
Abstract
AbstractUnderstanding interactions between low clouds and land surface fluxes is critical to comprehending Earth's energy balance, yet their relationships remain elusive, with discrepancies between observations and modeling. Leveraging long‐term field observations over the Southern Great Plains, this investigation revealed that cloud‐land interactions are closely connected to cloud‐land coupling regimes. Observational evidence supports a dual‐mode interaction: coupled stratiform clouds predominate in low sensible heat scenarios, while coupled cumulus clouds dominate in high sensible heat scenarios. Reanalysis data sets, MERRA‐2 and ERA‐5, obscure this dichotomy owing to a shortfall in representing boundary layer clouds, especially in capturing the initiation of coupled cumulus in high sensible heat scenarios. ERA‐5 demonstrates a relatively closer alignment with observational data, particularly in capturing relationships between cloud frequency and latent heat, markedly outperforming MERRA‐2. Our study underscores the necessity of distinguishing different cloud coupling regimes, essential to the understanding of their interactions for advancing land‐atmosphere interactions.
Funder
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Cited by
5 articles.
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