Browsing by Author "Hu, Jun"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Tracking Shallow Convective Mixing and Its Influence on Low-Level Clouds With Stable Water Isotopes in Vapor
    (Wiley, 2022) Hu, Jun; Bailey, Adriana; Nusbaumer, Jesse; Dee, Sylvia; Sasser,Christiana; Worden, John
    Low-cloud feedbacks contribute large uncertainties to climate projections and estimated climate sensitivity. A key physical process modulating low-cloud feedbacks is shallow convective mixing between the boundary layer and the free troposphere. However, there are challenges in acquiring observational constraints of shallow convective mixing with global coverage. To this end, we propose a novel approach to constraining convective mixing using stable water vapor isotope profiles from satellite retrievals. We demonstrate that the vertical gradient of water vapor δD between the boundary layer and free troposphere can be used to track shallow convective mixing. Analyzing isotopes in water vapor alongside low-cloud properties from satellite retrievals, we find that low-cloud fraction appears largely insensitive to convective mixing in shallow cumulus regions. Our results also suggest that strong shallow convective mixing is associated with the moistening of the free troposphere. The new estimate of shallow convective mixing and its relationship with low-cloud properties offers a potential constraint on simulations of low-cloud feedbacks and estimates of climate sensitivity.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Tropical Pacific Modulation of the Asian Summer Monsoon Over the Last Millennium in Paleoclimate Data Assimilation Reconstructions
    (Wiley, 2023) Hu, Jun; Dee, Sylvia; Parajuli, Grant; Thirumalai, Kaustubh
    Large uncertainties exist in climate model projections of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM). The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is an important modulator of the ASM, but the ENSO-ASM teleconnection is not stationary. Furthermore, teleconnections between ENSO and the East Asian versus South Asian subcomponents of the ASM exhibit distinct characteristics. Therefore, understanding the variability of the ENSO-ASM teleconnection is critical for anticipating future variations in ASM intensity. To this end, we here use paleoclimate records to extend temporal coverage beyond the instrumental era by millennia. Recently, data assimilation techniques have been applied for the last millennium, which facilitates physically consistent, globally gridded climate reconstructions informed by paleoclimate observations. We use these novel data assimilation products to investigate variations in the ENSO-ASM relationship over the last 1,000 years. We find that correlations between ENSO and ASM indices are mostly negative in the last millennium, suggesting that strong ASM years are often associated with La Niña events. During periods of weak correlations between ENSO and the East Asian summer monsoon, we observe an El Niño-like sea surface temperature (SST) pattern in the Pacific. Additionally, SST patterns associated with periods of weak correlations between ENSO and South Asian summer monsoon rainfall are not consistent among data assimilation products. This underscores the importance of developing more precipitation-sensitive paleoclimate proxies in the Indian subcontinental realm over the last millennium. Our study serves as a baseline for future appraisals of paleoclimate assimilation products and an example of informing our understanding of decadal-scale ENSO-ASM teleconnection variability using paleoclimate data sets.