Understanding biases in shortwave cloud radiative forcing in the national center for atmospheric research community atmosphere model (CAM3) during El Nino

This study aims to understand the weak response of shortwave cloud radiative forcing (SWCF) to El Nino in the NCAR CAM3. Observations from ERBE and CERES show strong negative SWCF in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific during El Nino. The standard CAM3 simulation at T42 resolution severely underestimates this response, with even wrong sign in the eastern Pacific. However, an experimental simulation at the same resolution, but with a modified convection parameterization scheme, simulates the cloud shortwave response to El Nino well, although the improvement in the eastern Pacific is not as significant as in the western and central Pacific. To unravel the mechanistic differences in SWCF response to El Nino between the two simulations, the authors analyze the cloud amount, cloud liquid water path (LWP), cloud ice water path (IWP), and convective and large-scale precipitation. It is shown that positive LWP anomalies are mainly responsible for the improved SWCF response to El Nino in the experimental simulation. Interaction among deep convection, shallow convection and low-level clouds is explored to explain this result. Negative LWP anomalies, largely due to reduced cloud water content and amount of low clouds during El Nino in the standard CAM3, weaken the SWCF response. Comparison with a higher-resolution simulation of CAM3 at T85 shows that the T85 simulation produces realistic SWCF response through greatly increased cloud water and ice content in the middle and upper troposphere, while reduced low-level cloud water content remains a problem.