Spatio-Temporal Variation of Critical Relative Humidity Based on Multiple Datasets

Abstract

Clouds remain an important source of uncertainty in climate simulations, in large part because subgrid processes are not well represented. Critical relative humidity (RHc) is an important metric for subgrid-scale variability in humidity in cloud parameterization. Based on CloudSat and CALIPSO satellite data, we explored the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of RHc, assessed the ability of ERA-5 and MERRA-2 reanalysis and CMIP-6 climate models to characterise humidity subgrid variability and further explored the influence of meteorological factors and aerosols. The statistical results showed that there was significant variation in the spatial distribution of RHc, with large variations in both latitude and altitude, as well as more pronounced monthly variations, and that there were differences in monthly variations between regions. Both the reanalysis data and the climate models were able to reproduce similar spatial and temporal distribution patterns but differed significantly in their specific values. The temporal correlations with satellite observations were also relatively poor. In addition, aerosols and meteorological conditions affected the distribution of RHc by influencing the cloud fraction at a certain relative humidity level, indicating that their influence needs to be considered in future parameterization schemes.

Keywords

• critical relative humidity
• cloud fraction
• CloudSat and CALIPSO
• reanalysis products
• CMIP6 climate models