The impacts of cloud radiative heating on the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) over southeastern China (105°–125°E, 20°–35°N) are addressed by using the Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Sensitivity experiments demonstrate that the radiative heating of clouds leads to a positive effect on the local EASM circulation over southeastern China. Without the radiative heating of clouds, the EASM circulation and precipitation would be much weaker than that in normal conditions. The longwave heating of clouds dominates the changes of EASM circulation. The positive effect of clouds on EASM circulation is explained by the thermodynamic energy equation, i.e. the different heating rate between cloud base and cloud top enhances the convective instability over southeastern China, which consequently enhances updraft. The strong updraft would further result in a southward meridional wind above the center of the updraft through Sverdrup vorticity balance.
LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China;Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China;Institute for Climate and Global Change Research & School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, People’s Republic of China;LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China;Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China;Institute for Climate and Global Change Research & School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, People’s Republic of China;Collaborative Innovation Center of Climate Change, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China;Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA;Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
Recommended Citation:
Zhun Guo,Tianjun Zhou,Minghuai Wang,et al. Impact of cloud radiative heating on East Asian summer monsoon circulation[J]. Environmental Research Letters,2015-01-01,10(7)