On the sensitivity of aerosol–cloud interactions to changes in sea surface temperature in radiative–convective equilibrium

Clouds play a vital role in regulating Earth’s energy balance and are impacted by anthropogenic aerosol concentration (N_a) and sea surface temperature (SST) alterations. Traditionally, these factors, aerosols and SST, are investigated independently. This study employs cloud-resolving, radiative–convective-equilibrium (RCE) simulations to explore aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs) under varying SSTs. ACIs are found to be SST-dependent even under RCE conditions. Notably, changes in cloud radiative effects for both longwave radiation and shortwave radiation lead to a decrease in top-of-atmosphere (TOA) energy gain with increasing N_a. The changes in TOA shortwave flux exhibit greater sensitivity to underlying SST conditions compared to longwave radiation. To comprehend these trends, we perform a linear decomposition, analyzing the responses of different cloud regimes and contributions from changes in the cloud’s opacity and occurrence. This breakdown reveals that ice and shallow clouds predominantly contribute to the radiative effect, mostly due to changes in the cloud’s opacity and due to the Twomey effect, which is proportional to the baseline cloud fraction. Moreover, with an increase in N_a, we observe an increase in latent heat release at the upper troposphere associated with heightened production of snow and graupel. We show that this trend, consistently across all SSTs, affects the anvil cloud cover by affecting the static stability at the upper troposphere via a similar mechanism to the stability iris effect, resulting in an increase in outgoing longwave radiation. In conclusion, under the ongoing climate change, studying the sensitivity of clouds to aerosols and SST should be conducted concomitantly as mutual effects are expected.