Fixed Anvil Temperature Feedback: Positive, Zero, or Negative?

Abstract The fixed anvil temperature (FAT) theory describes a mechanism for how tropical anvil clouds respond to global warming and has been used to argue for a robust positive longwave cloud feedback. A constant cloud anvil temperature, due to increased anvil altitude, has been argued to lead to a “zero cloud emission change” feedback, which can be considered positive relative to the negative feedback associated with cloud anvil warming when cloud altitude is unchanged. Here, partial radiative perturbation (PRP) analysis is used to quantify the radiative feedback caused by clouds that follow the FAT theory (FAT–cloud feedback) and to set this in the context of other feedback components in two atmospheric general circulation models. The FAT–cloud feedback is positive in the PRP framework due to increasing anvil altitude, but because the cloud emission does not change, this positive feedback is cancelled by an equal and opposite component of the temperature feedback due to increasing emission from the cloud. To incorporate this cancellation, the thermal radiative damping with fixed relative humidity and anvil temperature (T-FRAT) decomposition framework is proposed for longwave feedbacks, in which temperature, fixed relative humidity, and FAT–cloud feedbacks are combined. In T-FRAT, the cloud feedback under the FAT constraint is zero, while that under the proportionately higher anvil temperature (PHAT) constraint is negative. The change in the observable cloud radiative effect with FAT–cloud response is also evaluated and shown to be negative due to so-called cloud masking effects. It is shown that “cloud masking” is a misleading term in this context, and these effects are interpreted more generally as “cloud climatology effects.”