GEWEX-CLIVAR Coordination of U.S. Activities (1998) / Chapter Skim
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Attachment A
Attachment A
Pages 5-9
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From page 5... ...
How do aerosols contribute to cloud formation, precipitation, and radiative interaction? Cloud processes in general and their relationship to atmospheric water vapor and the radiation balance, although they occur on time scales far shorter than decadal, remain a major uncertainty in the prediction of future radiation balances; parameterizations need to be improved for cloud formation and distribution as a function of water-vapor distribution, surface boundary conditions, and rate of the hydrologic cycle.
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From page 6... ...
A thorough examination of the patterns of past hydrologic variability, and the testing of plausible mechanisms with focused observational and simulation strategies, should lead to a better predictive understanding of this critical climate feature... How do the distribution of water vapor, precipitation, and clouds respond to and interact with surface boundary conditions and changes in forcings on dec-cen time scales?
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From page 7... ...
Existing global observation climatologies significantly disagree among themselves, so that not even a baseline of large-scale evaporation has been established. (A recent GEWEX Initiative, the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP)
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From page 8... ...
Accurate simulation of terrestrial water flow and storage is a difficult modeling problem, particularly because water pathways depend on conditions far more local than climate models can currently resolve or are likely to be able to resolve In the foreseeable future. Better parameterizations of the relationships of water vapor, precipitation, and clouds are required in order to improve their representation in climate models, because their responses and feedbacks are critical to the long-term climate response to changes in forcing and concomitant changes in the fundamental climatic state.
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From page 9... ...
A12. "Do snow-related changes in surface albedo, surface heat and moisture fluxes, soil moisture, vegetation cover, and cloud formation significantly influence atmospheric patterns or large-scale planetary waves, and thus drive long-term feedbacks in the climate system?
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