3-D radiation-topography interaction, which can increase the sunlight absorption by the surface, is missing in all climate models, causing strong cold biases over the Tibetan Plateau.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Probing Wildfire Smoke Plumes Up Close
Direct observations from flights over coastal California reveal more about aerosol plumes released by burning biomass.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Precipitation in the Tropics: A New View
The first study to simultaneously investigate precipitation and cloud structures in tropical weather systems concludes observation systems significantly overestimate the height of raining clouds.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Improving Retrievals for Vertically Inhomogeneous Warm Clouds
Cloud droplet size changes with height, but passive sensors are virtually blind to see it; however, combining passive with active sensors helps profile it in vertically inhomogeneous warm clouds.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Drives Surface Winds in a Deep Valley?
Surface winds in a Himalayan valley are found to vary daily and seasonally due to factors including pressure gradient, advection, turbulent vertical mixing, and the presence of glaciers.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
How Brown Carbon and Coatings on Black Carbon Affect Absorption
While ambient black carbon absorption is shown largely independent of coatings, distinct types of atmospheric brown carbon coexist, deriving from primary emissions and secondary processing.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Observations Show Gravity Waves Above Antarctica Dance in Winter
Year-round observations show gravity waves above Antarctica exhibit seasonal patterns that peak in winter, which could help researchers trace the source of this mysterious phenomenon.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Managing Uncertainties in Climate Engineering
Control theory and climate engineering meet in a new special issue of JGR: Atmospheres.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Improving Retrievals for Partially Cloudy Pixels
Cloud retrievals for partly cloudy pixels might be able to be improved by using high-resolution samples in a visible to near-infrared band, which many satellite sensors offer.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
What Makes a Terrestrial Gamma-Ray Flash in Thunderclouds?
Two lightning flashes were observed in the same location: One produced a bright gamma-ray flash with about 1000 counts per millisecond, but the other did not.