Abstract

In this talk I will present an analysis of the roles of radiation in tropical climate variation, using both satellite and modelling data. First, I will discuss the radiative energetics during the ENSO cycle. In this case, we find a strong and interesting cloud radiative feedback that drives atmospheric and oceanic variability differently at different phases of ENSO. Evidence shows that the overall radiative effect is a positive feedback, without which ENSO variability would be reduced. Current GCMs have a noticeable bias in the cloud radiative feedback, particularly the extent of compensation between longwave and shortwave cloud feedback. Second, I will discuss the relation between radiation and tropical circulation strength. We find the differential radiative heating between the ascending and subsidence regions strongly controls the tropical mean circulation strength, which explains the weakening of the circulation during global warming.

Presenter Profile

Yi Huang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at McGill University. He did his Bachelor’s and Master’s studies at Peking University and then graduated with a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He held a NOAA Climate and Global Change postdoctoral fellowship before joining the faculty at McGill in 2011. Dr. Huang specializes in physical climatology and especially atmospheric radiation. He uses both satellite data and numeric modeling in his research and aims at better understanding the roles of radiation in weather and climate changes. Homepage: http://www.meteo.mcgill.ca/~huang/