Gregarious convection and radiative feedbacks in idealized worlds Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems

What role does convection play in cloud feedbacks? What role does convective aggregation play in climate? A flurry of recent studies explores “self‐aggregation” of moist convection in diverse simulations using explicit convection and interactive radiation. The implications involve upper level dry areas acting as infrared windows—the climate system's “radiator fins.” A positive feedback maintains these: dry columns undergo radiative cooling which drives descent and further drying. If the resulting clumpiness of vapor and cloud fields depends systematically on global temperature, then convective organization could be a climate system feedback. How reconcilable and how relevant are these interesting but idealized studies? 2016 Grant no. NA13OAR4310156 OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) PMC https://doi.org/10.1002/2016MS000651 CC BY-NC-ND 1952