Impact of the sea surface temperature rise on storm-track clouds in global nonhydrostatic aqua planet simulations

Aqua planet experiments were conducted to investigate storm-track cloud change due to sea surface temperature (SST) rise. Fourteenkilometer mesh global nonhydrostatic model was employed with an explicit cloud microphysical process, and the model output data were composited to the cyclone center. Both the column-integrated liquid and ice cloud contents are significantly increased around the cyclone center due to the SST rise. The occurrence of low-level liquid clouds becomes more frequent not only near the cyclone center but also for all of the higher latitudes, which cannot be seen in low-resolution models. This as well as thicker liquid clouds enhances shortwave cooling. Upper level ice clouds occur more frequently on the east side of the cyclone center, and they partly offset the enhanced shortwave cooling through longwave warming. These results may imply an importance of the cloud-scale process with cloud microphysics on the storm-track clouds and their radiative forcing.