David Thompson, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University
“What governs the depth of the extratropical troposphere?”
In this talk, I will argue that the depth of extratropical troposphere is primarily constrained by the same physics that govern the temperature of tropical anvil clouds. That is: The extratropical tropopause is constrained by the rapid decrease with height of radiative cooling by water vapor in clear sky regions, and thus by the thermodynamic constraints placed on saturation water vapor pressure. The results suggest that the climate feedbacks associated with high cloud in the tropics are also important in the extratropics, thus roughly doubling the surface area affected by the positive high cloud feedback. They also imply that the extratropical tropopause should stay at roughly the same temperature and thus lift under climate change.
Hosts: Ding Ma <
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