A modeling study of relation between cloud amount and SST over Western Tropical Pacific cloudy regions during TOGA COARE

The relationship between cloud amount and sea surface temperature (SST) over Western Tropical Pacific cloudy regions during TOGA COARE is investigated based on hourly grid simulation data from a two-dimensional coupled ocean-cloud resolving atmosphere model. The model is forced by the large-scale vertical velocity and zonal wind observed and derived from TOGA COARE for a 50-day period. The cloud amount becomes smaller when the ocean surface gets warmer, which is similar to previous relations obtained from observational analyses. As SST increases, the atmospheric temperature increases whereas the surface sensible heat flux decreases. The atmospheric water vapor is not sensitive to SST whereas the surface evaporation flux decreases as SST increases. These indicate that the oceanic effects do not play an important role in determining atmospheric heat and water vapor budgets. The cold atmosphere produces a larger amount of ice clouds that cover a larger area than the warm atmosphere does. The large amounts of ice clouds lead to cooling of the ocean surface through reflecting large amount of solar radiation back to the space. Thus, the negative correlation between the cloud amount and SST only accounts for the important atmospheric effects on the ocean. (C) 2008 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press. All rights reserved.