Investigating the influence of cloud radiative effects on the extratropical storm tracks

This study instead examines the role of CRE in climate variability in the extratropics. Cloud locking experiments are performed using the Community Earth System Model.

In these experiments, CRE are scrambled, such that they maintain the same climatology but no longer match the model's dynamical fields. The results of these experiments indicate that high-frequency interactions between CRE and dynamics have a small (≤5–10%) but statistically significant damping effect on the intensity of the extratropical storm tracks, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. Individual midlatitude cyclones have decreased intensity and shorter lifetime.