Sack Lunch Seminar (SLS)

Feedbacks from low-lying clouds have long been among the largest uncertainty in modeling global warming due to greenhouse gases. Better analysis methods, large-eddy simulation (LES) model simulations, and new observations have sharpened our understanding of low cloud feedbacks. There is partial compensation between processes, but overall, new work points to decreased cloudiness, especially over the subtropical oceans, as the climate warms. Both thermodynamic effects and global circulation changes contribute to this result. An overall summary of the science will be presented, followed by new LES results that help sort out relevant physical mechanisms of low cloud feedback.