Purpose of Review

We ask what fundamental insights about the relationship of tropical convection to climate have arisen from recent investigations using simplified models.

Recent Findings

The vertical distribution of relative humidity should remain approximately constant in a changed climate. The temperature of clouds in the upper troposphere should also remain effectively constant for climate changes likely to occur in response to human-induced warming. The fractional coverage of convective clouds will likely decrease slightly with warming, but it is not known how the albedo and net radiative effect of tropical convective clouds will change. The areal extent and net radiative effect of tropical convective clouds depend on the interactions of radiation, cloud physics, and turbulence within the extended upper-level ice clouds. SST gradients develop naturally as a result of the aggregation of convection and large-scale thermodynamics and circulation act to couple the cloud properties and the SST.

Summary

Radiative-convective equilibrium continues to provide insight into the structure and energy balance of the atmosphere by incorporating the interactions among radiation, cloud physics, and atmospheric motion.

中文翻译：

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对流与气候：我们从简单模型和简化设置中学到了什么？

审查目的

我们想问一下最近使用简化模型进行的调查对热带对流与气候之间的关系有哪些基本见解。

最近的发现

在变化的气候下，相对湿度的垂直分布应保持大致恒定。对流层中层的云层温度也应保持有效恒定，以应对可能由于人类诱发的变暖而发生的气候变化。随着温度的升高，对流云的覆盖率可能会略有下降，但尚不清楚热带对流云的反照率和净辐射效应将如何变化。热带对流云的面积范围和净辐射效应取决于辐射，云物理学和扩展的高层冰云内部湍流的相互作用。由于对流和大规模热力学的聚集，SST梯度自然发展，而环流作用则将云的性质和SST耦合起来。

概要

辐射对流平衡通过结合辐射，云物理和大气运动之间的相互作用，继续提供对大气结构和能量平衡的了解。