Hemispheric Albedo Asymmetries across Three Phases of CMIP

Abstract

Abstract Earth’s planetary albedo shows a remarkable hemispheric symmetry. We assess to what extent CMIP models symmetrize the hemispheric clear-sky albedo asymmetry and what the role of clouds is for this. Following Voigt et al., we calculate a reference TOA reflected solar radiation considering the masking of clear-sky asymmetry by symmetric cloud contributions. We use the simple radiation model of Donohoe and Battisti to estimate this benchmark and to separate surface, aerosol, and cloud contributions to the compensation of this benchmark. In CERES, tropical clouds enhance the reference asymmetry while extratropical cloud asymmetries balance the reference asymmetry and the additional asymmetry introduced by tropical clouds. CMIP multimodel means show similar results as CERES. Clouds compensate reference asymmetries by 85% (CMIP3), 65% (CMIP5), and 78% (CMIP6) as compared with 98% for CERES. Spatial distributions of hemispheric differences indicate clear improvements across the CMIP phases. Remaining all-sky reflection asymmetries predominantly result from too-small, partly compensating cloud asymmetries: a too-weak enhancement of the reference asymmetry in the tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans is accompanied by a too-weak compensation by extratropical clouds. Thus, tropical clouds and extratropical storm track regions are largely responsible for the compensation of hemispheric clear-sky asymmetries in CERES and CMIP, and for remaining biases in the GCMs. An unexpected result is the magnitude of model biases in the clear-sky asymmetries, which potentially condition systematic cloud biases. Experiments testing cloud-controlling factors influencing hemispheric asymmetry could help us to understand what drives hemispheric cloud differences.