PUBLICATIONS Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres RESEARCH ARTICLE Revisiting the iris effect of tropical cirrus clouds 10.1002/2016JD025827 with TRMM and A-Train satellite data Key Points: Yong-Sang Choi1,2 , WonMoo Kim3 , Sang-Wook Yeh4 , Hirohiko Masunaga5 , • Satellite observations reveal the iris 6 7 2,8 effect of tropical cirrus clouds Min-Jae Kwon , Hyun-Su Jo , and Lei Huang • The concentration of cloud systems 1 2 very likely contributes to the iris effect Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea, NASA Jet 3 • Climate models show that the Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA, Climate Prediction Department, APEC cirrus-precipitation relationship Climate Center, Busan, South Korea, 4Marine Sciences and Convergent Technology, Hanyang University, Seoul, South strongly linked to climate sensitivity Korea, 5Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, 6Department of Atmospheric Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea, 7CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia, 8Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Correspondence to: California, USA Y.-S. Choi,
[email protected] Abstract Just as the iris of human eye controls the light influx (iris effect), tropical anvil cirrus clouds may ’ Citation: regulate the Earth s surface warming by controlling outgoing longwave radiation. This study examines this Choi, Y.-S., W. Kim, S.-W. Yeh, H. possible effect with monthly satellite observations such as Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Masunaga, M.-J. Kwon, H.-S. Jo, and L. precipitation, Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer cirrus fraction, and Clouds and the Earth’s Huang (2017), Revisiting the iris effect of fl tropical cirrus clouds with TRMM and Radiant Energy System top-of-the-atmosphere radiative uxes averaged over different tropical domains from A-Train satellite data, J.