Thunderstorm clouds in regional climate models

Figure 3.19

This figure appears in chapter 3 of the Our Changing Planet: The U.S. Global Change Research Program for Fiscal Year 2016 report.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012GL054031

The left panel shows an image of clouds over the United States captured by the weather satellite GOES-13 (20:45 UTC, July 29, 2010). The other two panels show model simulations of cloudiness for the same date and approximate time, first excluding (middle) and then including (right) the effects of thunderstorm clouds on the climate system. Cloud cover in the right panel matches the satellite image much more closely, demonstrating that the new modeling approach better represents the real world—and thus enables greater confidence in regional climate predictions. (Source: Adapted from Alapaty et al., 2012)

When citing this figure, please reference Adapted from Figure 1 of paper: Alapaty, K., J.A. Herwehe, T.L. Otte, C.G. Nolte, O.R. Bullock, M.S. Mallard, J.S. Kain, and J. Dudhia. 2012. Introducing subgrid-scale cloud feedbacks to radiation for regional meteorological and climate modeling. Geophysical Research Letters 39, L24808.

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This figure was derived from Introducing subgrid-scale cloud feedbacks to radiation for regional meteorological and climate modeling .

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