HR: 0800h
AN: A41A-0006    [Abstracts]
TI: Evolution of the tropical atmosphere radiative budget as seen from observations and AR4 model simulations
AU: * Andronova, N
EM: natand@umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143, United States
AU: Penner, J
EM: penner@mail.umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143, United States
AU: Xu, L
EM: lixum@umich.edu
AF: University of Michigan, 2455 Hayward Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2143, United States
AB: A transient change in the balance between the incoming and outgoing radiation is an important indicator of the changing Earth's climate. In this paper we use available data from satellites (1980 to present) and ground measurements (1995 to present) to reconstruct the long-term evolution of the energy budget of the tropical atmosphere (20S-20N). We compare the estimate of the radiative budget with the corresponding estimates obtained from model simulations from the AR4 database. We show that in spite of the dramatic increase in the model's ability to simulate past and recent temperature change, the models show different sensitivities to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and do not agree with observations of the overall radiative balance tendencies over 1980-2000.
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
DE: 0325 Evolution of the atmosphere (1610, 8125)
DE: 1616 Climate variability (1635, 3305, 3309, 4215, 4513)
DE: 1626 Global climate models (3337, 4928)
DE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting