Report 15: Cloud-Radiative Effects on Implied Oceanic
Energy Transports as Simulated by Atmospheric General Circulation Models
Glecker, P. J., D. A. Randall, G. Boer, R. Colman, M. Dix, V.
Galin, M. Helfand, J. Kiehl, A. Kitoh, W. Lau, X. -Z. Liang, V. Lykossov,
B. McAvaney, K. Miyakoda and S. Planton
March 1994, 15 pp.
This paper reports on energy fluxes across the surface of the ocean
as simulated by fifteen atmospheric general circulation models in which
ocean surface temperatures and sea-ice boundaries are prescribed. The oceanic
meridional energy transport that would be required to balance these surface
fluxes is computed, and is shown to be critically sensitive to the radiative
effects of clouds, to the extent that even the sign of the Southern Hemisphere
ocean energy transport can be affected by the errors in simulated cloud-radiation
interactions. (pdf file)
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