Radiation variability in global and regional climate changes

大气辐射在气候和天气变化中起着重要作用。以辐射强迫和反馈为中心的理论框架促进了我们对全球变暖的理解。然而，在区域一级，我们对强迫和反馈机制的理解仍然存在差距，在量化方面也存在相当大的不确定性。另一方面，A-Train卫星等协同观测计划以前所未有的精度和全球覆盖率提供了近20年的气候数据，这为在全球和区域尺度上分析气候变化提供了独特的机会。在这项研究计划中，我们将推进云和地表反照率等关键气候变量辐射影响的量化方法，并将这些方法应用于研究辐射能量如何驱动不同地区的气候变化。特别是，我们将研究北极辐射与海冰的关系，量化辐射强迫和对异常海冰融化的反馈。随着我们开发的创新方法，除了大气层顶部的视角外，分析将独特地包括地球表面的辐射通量。调查还将阐明气候变化期间大气中垂直和水平能量通量之间的联系。这项计划将有助于更好地了解辐射的气候趋势，例如地面太阳辐射，这是可再生能源的一种重要形式。这项研究还将验证并帮助改进综合天气和气候模型中的辐射能量学模拟，这可能导致改进气候预测，例如，对北极海冰变化和未来变暖的预测。

Atmospheric radiation plays an important role in climate and weather variations. Our understanding of the global warming has been facilitated by a theoretic framework centered on radiative forcing and feedback. However, at the regional scales, there remain gaps in our understanding of the forcing and feedback mechanisms and considerable uncertainties in their quantification. On the other hand, the synergic observation programs such as the A-Train satellites have provided nearly two decades' climate data with unprecedented accuracy and global coverage, which presents a unique opportunity for analyzing the climate change at both global and regional scales. In this research program, we will advance the methods for quantifying the radiative impacts of crucial climate variables such as cloud and surface albedo and apply these methods to investigate how radiative energy drives climate variations in different regions. In particular, we will investigate the radiation-sea ice relationship in the Arctic and quantify the radiative forcing and feedback to the anomalous sea ice melts. With the innovative methods we develop, the analysis will uniquely include the radiative fluxes at the Earth surface, in addition to the top-of-atmosphere perspective. The investigation will also elucidate the connection between the vertical and horizontal energy fluxes in the atmosphere during climate change. This program will lead to a better understanding of climate trends in radiation such as that in the ground-level solar radiation, which is an important form of renewable energy. This research will also validate and help improve the simulation of radiative energetics in comprehensive weather and climate models, which may lead to improved climate prediction, e.g., the prediction of sea-ice variability and future warming in the Arctic.