Abstract
The potential effects of ice microphysics involving ice crystal size distribution and ice water path (IWP) on climatic temperature perturbations are investigated by using a one-dimensional radiative-turbulent climate model. We define a mean effective size, denoting the width of ice crystals weighted by the geometric cross section area, to represent ice crystal size distribution. Based on aircraft measurements, both the mean effective size and IWP are related to temperature and may be parameterized as functions of temperature. The radiative properties of cirrus clouds are further parameterized in terms of these two basic cloud physics parameters. Using CO 2 doubling as the radiative forcing, feedbacks among temperature, the mean effective size and IWP, and the radiative properties of clouds are analyzed from the model results. We show that overall, a positive feedback associated with ice microphysics and the coupled radiative transfer is produced by temperature increase.
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