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When Will MISR Detect Rising High Clouds?
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  • Travis Aerenson,
  • Roger Marchand,
  • Hélène Chepfer,
  • Brian Medeiros
Travis Aerenson
University of Washington, University of Washington

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Roger Marchand
University of Washington, University of Washington
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Hélène Chepfer
LMD/IPSL Sorbonne Université, LMD/IPSL Sorbonne Université
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Brian Medeiros
National Center for Atmospheric Research, National Center for Atmospheric Research
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Abstract

It is predicted by both theory and models that high clouds will occur higher in the atmosphere as a result of climate warming. This change produces a positive longwave feedback and has a substantial impact on the Earth’s response to warming. This effect is well established by theory, but is poorly constrained by observations, and there is large spread in the feedback strength between climate models. We use the NASA Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) to examine changes in Cloud-Top-Height (CTH). MISR uses a stereo-imaging technique to determine CTH. This approach is geometric in nature and insensitive to instrument calibration and therefore is well suited for trend analysis and studies of variability on long time scales. In this article we show that the current MISR record does have an increase in CTH for high-altitude cloud over the Southern Hemisphere (SH) but not over the Tropics or the Northern Hemisphere (NH). We use climate model simulations to estimate when MISR might be expected to detect a global trend in CTH, that would include the NH. The analysis suggests that according to the models used in this study MISR should detect changes over the SH ocean earlier than the NH, and should be capable of detecting a trend over the Tropics and NH very soon (3 to 10 years). This result highlights the potential value of a follow-on mission to MISR, which no longer maintains a fixed equator crossing time and is unlikely to be making observations for another 10 years.
27 Jan 2022Published in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres volume 127 issue 2. 10.1029/2021JD035865