Reinforcement of Climate Hiatus by Decadal Modulation of Daily Cloud Cycle

TL;DR

This paper proposes that decadal variations in the daily cloud cycle, linked to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, contributed to the recent slowdown in global warming by reflecting or reemitting energy, acting as a temporary climate stabilizer.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis that cloud cycle variations, related to PDO, partly explain the climate hiatus, emphasizing clouds' role in decadal climate modulation.

Findings

Daily cloud cycle linked to Pacific Decadal Oscillation

Decadal variations in cloud cycle have a cooling effect

Cloud effects may have temporarily offset greenhouse warming

Abstract

Based on observations and climate model results, it has been suggested that the recent slowdown of global warming trends (climate hiatus), which took place in the early 2000s, might be due to enhanced ocean heat uptake. Here we suggest an alternative hypothesis which, at least in part, would relate such slowdown to unaccounted energy reflected or reemitted by clouds. We show that the daily cloud cycle is strongly linked to pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and that its decadal variations during the climate hiatus have an overall cooling effect. Such an effect may have partially, and temporarily, counteracted the greenhouse warming trends.