Cloud rapid adjustments

Rapid adjustments play an important role for the climate effect of drivers of climate change. These adjustments to temperature, water vapour and clouds occur before changes to the surface temperature. We show results from CMIP6 models and results of various climate drivers in Precipitation Driver and Model Intercomparison Project (PDRMIP). Rapid adjustments are particularly important for the climate effect of black carbon. The magnitude and sign of the black carbon rapid adjustments depend strongly on the vertical profile of black carbon. Black carbon in the upper troposphere causes a strong reduction of clouds. On the other hand, CO₂ increases upper-level clouds resulting in cloud rapid adjustment in some climate models is a substantial fraction of the cloud feedback