The Black Cloud Experiment

Anne B. Kahle, Diran Deirmendjian

ResearchPublished 1973

The RAND version of the Mintz-Arakawa two-level general circulation model of the atmosphere was used to study effects of a 6.5% reduction in incoming solar radiation. Sixty days were simulated. The temperatures of both the atmosphere and the ground began dropping immediately, relative to a control experiment, and dropped fairly steadily, reaching an average decrease of about a degree C at the end of 60 days. Also decreasing from the outset were the total kinetic energy and the total latent energy. Although there is some reduction in the rate of decrease of all these quantities by the end of 60 days, the model appears to be quite far from a new equilibrium state. The rate of decrease of temperature is somewhat slower than has been found by others using radiation models or radiation-moisture models. This slower response of the Mintz-Arakawa model may be ascribed to the redistribution of part of the energy loss to the kinetic and latent forms, a process which was not possible in the radiation models.

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Kahle, Anne B. and Diran Deirmendjian, The Black Cloud Experiment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1973. https://www.rand.org/pubs/reports/R1263.html.
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