Clouds act as a negative feedback and cause significant cooling

A new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters (as reported by The Hockey Schtick)

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 117, D13103, 7 PP., 2012
doi:10.1029/2012JD017626

Understanding sudden changes in cloud amount: The Southern Annular Mode and South American weather fluctuations

A paper published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research finds that a natural atmospheric oscillation, the Southern Annular Mode, is correlated to significant increases in cloud cover resulting in "large scale" local cooling of approximately -2.5C. All climate models falsely assume clouds result in net positive feedback and increased temperatures, however this new paper and several others show clouds instead result in net negative feedback and cooling.

Key Points

• Sudden regional increases in cloud cover are detected over S. America
• Changes linked to the Southern Annular Mode
• The cloud changes are associated with regional temperature reductions

Benjamin A. Laken

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain

Department of Astrophysics, Faculty of Physics, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain

Enric Pallé

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain

Department of Astrophysics, Faculty of Physics, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain