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Climate goals and computing the future of clouds

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 3–5 (2017)Cite this article

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How clouds respond to warming remains the greatest source of uncertainty in climate projections. Improved computational and observational tools can reduce this uncertainty. Here we discuss the need for research focusing on high-resolution atmosphere models and the representation of clouds and turbulence within them.

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Figure 1: Dependence of climate goals on equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) and of ECS on low-cloud feedback.
Figure 2: Evolution of horizontal resolution of climate models and maximum computer performance since 1979.
Figure 3: Grid cells in a global climate model and a large-eddy simulation of shallow cumulus clouds at 5 m resolution15.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Momme Hell (Univ. California) for contributing to preparing Fig. 3. C.B. acknowledges grant DE-SC0012451 from the US Department of Energy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tapio Schneider and Kyle G. Pressel are at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA,

    Tapio Schneider & Kyle G. Pressel

  2. João Teixeira is at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA,

    João Teixeira

  3. Christopher S. Bretherton is at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA,

    Christopher S. Bretherton

  4. Florent Brient is at the Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, Météo-France/CNRS, 31057 Toulouse, France,

    Florent Brient

  5. Christoph Schär is at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland,

    Christoph Schär

  6. A. Pier Siebesma is at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, NL-3730AE De Bilt, and Delft University of Technology, NL-2600AA Delft, Netherlands,

    A. Pier Siebesma

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  1. Tapio Schneider
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Correspondence to Tapio Schneider.

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Schneider, T., Teixeira, J., Bretherton, C. et al. Climate goals and computing the future of clouds. Nature Clim Change 7, 3–5 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3190

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