Contrasting impacts of forests on cloud cover based on satellite observations

Ru Xu; Yan Li; Adriaan J. Teuling; Lei Zhao; Dominick V. Spracklen; Luis Garcia-Carreras; Ronny Meier; Liang Chen; Youtong Zheng; Huiqing Lin; Bojie Fu

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-28161-7

Contrasting impacts of forests on cloud cover based on satellite observations

Ru Xu, Yan Li, Adriaan J. Teuling, Lei Zhao, Dominick V. Spracklen, Luis Garcia-Carreras, Ronny Meier, Liang Chen, Youtong Zheng, Huiqing Lin, Bojie Fu

Earth and Environmental Sciences - Academic & Research

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Abstract

Forests play a pivotal role in regulating climate and sustaining the hydrological cycle. The biophysical impacts of forests on clouds, however, remain unclear. Here, we use satellite data to show that forests in different regions have opposite effects on summer cloud cover. We find enhanced clouds over most temperate and boreal forests but inhibited clouds over Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast US. The spatial variation in the sign of cloud effects is driven by sensible heating, where cloud enhancement is more likely to occur over forests with larger sensible heat, and cloud inhibition over forests with smaller sensible heat. Ongoing forest cover loss has led to cloud increase over forest loss hotspots in the Amazon (+0.78%), Indonesia (+1.19%), and Southeast US (+ 0.09%), but cloud reduction in East Siberia (-0.20%) from 2002-2018. Our data-driven assessment improves mechanistic understanding of forest-cloud interactions, which remain uncertain in Earth system models.

Original language	English
Article number	670 (2022)
Journal	Nature Communications
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28161-7
Publication status	Published - 3 Feb 2022

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title = "Contrasting impacts of forests on cloud cover based on satellite observations",

abstract = "Forests play a pivotal role in regulating climate and sustaining the hydrological cycle. The biophysical impacts of forests on clouds, however, remain unclear. Here, we use satellite data to show that forests in different regions have opposite effects on summer cloud cover. We find enhanced clouds over most temperate and boreal forests but inhibited clouds over Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast US. The spatial variation in the sign of cloud effects is driven by sensible heating, where cloud enhancement is more likely to occur over forests with larger sensible heat, and cloud inhibition over forests with smaller sensible heat. Ongoing forest cover loss has led to cloud increase over forest loss hotspots in the Amazon (+0.78%), Indonesia (+1.19%), and Southeast US (+ 0.09%), but cloud reduction in East Siberia (-0.20%) from 2002-2018. Our data-driven assessment improves mechanistic understanding of forest-cloud interactions, which remain uncertain in Earth system models.",

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AU - Xu, Ru

AU - Li, Yan

AU - Teuling, Adriaan J.

AU - Zhao, Lei

AU - Spracklen, Dominick V.

AU - Garcia-Carreras, Luis

AU - Meier, Ronny

AU - Chen, Liang

AU - Zheng, Youtong

AU - Lin, Huiqing

AU - Fu, Bojie

PY - 2022/2/3

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N2 - Forests play a pivotal role in regulating climate and sustaining the hydrological cycle. The biophysical impacts of forests on clouds, however, remain unclear. Here, we use satellite data to show that forests in different regions have opposite effects on summer cloud cover. We find enhanced clouds over most temperate and boreal forests but inhibited clouds over Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast US. The spatial variation in the sign of cloud effects is driven by sensible heating, where cloud enhancement is more likely to occur over forests with larger sensible heat, and cloud inhibition over forests with smaller sensible heat. Ongoing forest cover loss has led to cloud increase over forest loss hotspots in the Amazon (+0.78%), Indonesia (+1.19%), and Southeast US (+ 0.09%), but cloud reduction in East Siberia (-0.20%) from 2002-2018. Our data-driven assessment improves mechanistic understanding of forest-cloud interactions, which remain uncertain in Earth system models.

AB - Forests play a pivotal role in regulating climate and sustaining the hydrological cycle. The biophysical impacts of forests on clouds, however, remain unclear. Here, we use satellite data to show that forests in different regions have opposite effects on summer cloud cover. We find enhanced clouds over most temperate and boreal forests but inhibited clouds over Amazon, Central Africa, and Southeast US. The spatial variation in the sign of cloud effects is driven by sensible heating, where cloud enhancement is more likely to occur over forests with larger sensible heat, and cloud inhibition over forests with smaller sensible heat. Ongoing forest cover loss has led to cloud increase over forest loss hotspots in the Amazon (+0.78%), Indonesia (+1.19%), and Southeast US (+ 0.09%), but cloud reduction in East Siberia (-0.20%) from 2002-2018. Our data-driven assessment improves mechanistic understanding of forest-cloud interactions, which remain uncertain in Earth system models.

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SN - 2041-1723

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

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Contrasting impacts of forests on cloud cover based on satellite observations

Abstract

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