Preprints
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2021-75
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2021-75
20 Oct 2021
 | 20 Oct 2021
Status: this preprint was under review for the journal ESD but the revision was not accepted.

Dominant influence of Pacific climate modes on global observed and reanalysis cloud cover fields

Petru Cosmin Vaideanu, Mihai Dima, Monica Ionita, and Mirela Voiculescu

Abstract. Global cloud cover represents a critical component of the climate system, with a considerable impact on the Earth's radiation budget. Small changes in clouds properties have a significant climatological impact because of the feedbacks that they generate, thus it is difficult to simulate the global cloud cover evolution in general circulation models. Observational investigations of cloud processes are constrained either by limited temporal and spatial extension of ground-based measurements or by imperfections in satellite data, like changes in geostationary satellite zenith angle, equatorial crossing time, or calibration. In this study, we used the Empirical Orthogonal Functions method to separate global patterns of total cloud cover variability in two satellite datasets from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project and the Pathfinder Atmospheres–Extended projects, each corrected for specific errors, and in the ERA5 Reanalysis. The first two modes explain most of the variance from what could be considered “signal” in both satellite data. Through Canonical Correlation Analysis, they are associated in a physically consistent manner with two different types of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), namely the canonical ENSO which manifests itself in the eastern tropical Pacific and the El-Niño Modiki which manifest itself in the central Pacific. This work provides a comprehensive picture of the relationship between global total cloud cover and the tropical Pacific processes and indicates that cloud cover in the Indo-Pacific sector plays a significant role in the Earth radiative budget at interannual to decadal time scales. The similarity of the results across satellite and reanalysis data indicate that the both the observed and reanalysis cloud data sets contain consistent and valuable information related to global climate variability.

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Petru Cosmin Vaideanu, Mihai Dima, Monica Ionita, and Mirela Voiculescu

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on esd-2021-75', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 Dec 2021
  • RC2: 'Comment on esd-2021-75', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Jan 2022

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on esd-2021-75', Anonymous Referee #1, 08 Dec 2021
  • RC2: 'Comment on esd-2021-75', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Jan 2022
Petru Cosmin Vaideanu, Mihai Dima, Monica Ionita, and Mirela Voiculescu
Petru Cosmin Vaideanu, Mihai Dima, Monica Ionita, and Mirela Voiculescu

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Short summary
Observing clouds and their properties is not straightforward, however, these are important for reducing climate models uncertainties. Ground-based observations are spatially limited while satellite data are accompanied by various artefacts. In this paper, we use corrected observational and state-of-the-art reanalysis cloud data to show that the recent evolution of total cloud cover on a global scale is linked to the Eastern Pacific and the Central Pacific El Niño–Southern Oscillation.
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