Cloud Patterns in the Trades Have Four Interpretable Dimensions

Shallow cloud fields over the subtropical ocean exhibit many spatial patterns. The frequency of occurrence these patterns can change under global warming. Hence, they may influence marine clouds’ climate feedback. While numerous metrics have been proposed to quantify patterns, a systematic, widely accepted description is still missing. Therefore, this study suggests one. We compute 21 for 5,000 satellite scenes shallow clouds Atlantic Ocean and translate resulting data set its principal components (PCs). This yields unimodal, continuous distribution without distinct classes, whose first four PCs explain 82% all metrics’ variance. correspond interpretable dimensions: Characteristic length, void size, directional alignment, horizontal top height These dimensions span space in which an effective pattern be given, used better understand patterns’ underlying physics feedback on climate.