Measuring how climate models calculate the effects of clouds on Earth's warming
Tuesday, March 6, 2012 - 09:30
in Earth & Climate
Using ten years of data gathered at three unique measurement sites, scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory found that global climate models are not representing just how much clouds mask the sun's warming energy. And for the first time, scientists used data on the spatial coverage, height, and transparency of the clouds to inform climate models. They found the relative monthly and annual differences among three cloud fraction datasets at each site are small. However, comparing observations with a dozen global models shows that cloud coverage is significantly misrepresented in the models, by up to 150 percent at one site.