Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations
Abstract In which direction is the influence larger: from the Arctic to the mid-latitudes or vice versa? To answer this question, CO 2 concentrations have been regionally increased in different latitudinal belts, namely in the Arctic, in the northern mid-latitudes, everywhere outside of the Arctic a...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z/fulltext.html |
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crspringernat:10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z 2023-05-15T14:32:39+02:00 Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations Semmler, Tido Pithan, Felix Jung, Thomas Horizon 2020 Framework Programme 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z/fulltext.html en eng Springer Science and Business Media LLC https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Climate Dynamics volume 54, issue 7-8, page 3307-3321 ISSN 0930-7575 1432-0894 Atmospheric Science journal-article 2020 crspringernat https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z 2022-01-04T15:59:44Z Abstract In which direction is the influence larger: from the Arctic to the mid-latitudes or vice versa? To answer this question, CO 2 concentrations have been regionally increased in different latitudinal belts, namely in the Arctic, in the northern mid-latitudes, everywhere outside of the Arctic and globally, in a series of 150 year coupled model experiments with the AWI Climate Model. This method is applied to allow a decomposition of the response to increasing CO 2 concentrations in different regions. It turns out that CO 2 increase applied in the Arctic only is very efficient in heating the Arctic and that the energy largely remains in the Arctic. In the first 30 years after switching on the CO 2 forcing some robust atmospheric circulation changes, which are associated with the surface temperature anomalies including local cooling of up to 1 °C in parts of North America, are simulated. The synoptic activity is decreased in the mid-latitudes. Further into the simulation, surface temperature and atmospheric circulation anomalies become less robust. When quadrupling the CO 2 concentration south of 60° N, the March Arctic sea ice volume is reduced by about two thirds in the 150 years of simulation time. When quadrupling the CO 2 concentration between 30 and 60° N, the March Arctic sea ice volume is reduced by around one third, the same amount as if quadrupling CO 2 north of 60° N. Both atmospheric and oceanic northward energy transport across 60° N are enhanced by up to 0.1 PW and 0.03 PW, respectively, and winter synoptic activity is increased over the Greenland, Norwegian, Iceland (GIN) seas. To a lesser extent the same happens when the CO 2 concentration between 30 and 60° N is only increased to 1.65 times the reference value in order to consider the different size of the forcing areas. The increased northward energy transport, leads to Arctic sea ice reduction, and consequently Arctic amplification is present without Arctic CO 2 forcing in all seasons but summer, independent of where the forcing is applied south of 60° N. South of the forcing area, both in the Arctic and northern mid-latitude forcing simulations, the warming is generally limited to less than 0.5 °C. In contrast, north of the forcing area in the northern mid-latitude forcing experiments, the warming amounts to generally more than 1 °C close to the surface, except for summer. This is a strong indication that the influence of warming outside of the Arctic on the Arctic is substantial, while forcing applied only in the Arctic mainly materializes in a warming Arctic, with relatively small implications for non-Arctic regions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Greenland Iceland Sea ice Springer Nature (via Crossref) Arctic Greenland Climate Dynamics 54 7-8 3307 3321 |
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Springer Nature (via Crossref) |
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English |
topic |
Atmospheric Science |
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Atmospheric Science Semmler, Tido Pithan, Felix Jung, Thomas Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric Science |
description |
Abstract In which direction is the influence larger: from the Arctic to the mid-latitudes or vice versa? To answer this question, CO 2 concentrations have been regionally increased in different latitudinal belts, namely in the Arctic, in the northern mid-latitudes, everywhere outside of the Arctic and globally, in a series of 150 year coupled model experiments with the AWI Climate Model. This method is applied to allow a decomposition of the response to increasing CO 2 concentrations in different regions. It turns out that CO 2 increase applied in the Arctic only is very efficient in heating the Arctic and that the energy largely remains in the Arctic. In the first 30 years after switching on the CO 2 forcing some robust atmospheric circulation changes, which are associated with the surface temperature anomalies including local cooling of up to 1 °C in parts of North America, are simulated. The synoptic activity is decreased in the mid-latitudes. Further into the simulation, surface temperature and atmospheric circulation anomalies become less robust. When quadrupling the CO 2 concentration south of 60° N, the March Arctic sea ice volume is reduced by about two thirds in the 150 years of simulation time. When quadrupling the CO 2 concentration between 30 and 60° N, the March Arctic sea ice volume is reduced by around one third, the same amount as if quadrupling CO 2 north of 60° N. Both atmospheric and oceanic northward energy transport across 60° N are enhanced by up to 0.1 PW and 0.03 PW, respectively, and winter synoptic activity is increased over the Greenland, Norwegian, Iceland (GIN) seas. To a lesser extent the same happens when the CO 2 concentration between 30 and 60° N is only increased to 1.65 times the reference value in order to consider the different size of the forcing areas. The increased northward energy transport, leads to Arctic sea ice reduction, and consequently Arctic amplification is present without Arctic CO 2 forcing in all seasons but summer, independent of where the forcing is applied south of 60° N. South of the forcing area, both in the Arctic and northern mid-latitude forcing simulations, the warming is generally limited to less than 0.5 °C. In contrast, north of the forcing area in the northern mid-latitude forcing experiments, the warming amounts to generally more than 1 °C close to the surface, except for summer. This is a strong indication that the influence of warming outside of the Arctic on the Arctic is substantial, while forcing applied only in the Arctic mainly materializes in a warming Arctic, with relatively small implications for non-Arctic regions. |
author2 |
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Semmler, Tido Pithan, Felix Jung, Thomas |
author_facet |
Semmler, Tido Pithan, Felix Jung, Thomas |
author_sort |
Semmler, Tido |
title |
Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
title_short |
Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
title_full |
Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying two-way influences between the Arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased CO2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
title_sort |
quantifying two-way influences between the arctic and mid-latitudes through regionally increased co2 concentrations in coupled climate simulations |
publisher |
Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z.pdf http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z/fulltext.html |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Greenland Iceland Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Greenland Iceland Sea ice |
op_source |
Climate Dynamics volume 54, issue 7-8, page 3307-3321 ISSN 0930-7575 1432-0894 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05171-z |
container_title |
Climate Dynamics |
container_volume |
54 |
container_issue |
7-8 |
container_start_page |
3307 |
op_container_end_page |
3321 |
_version_ |
1766306036318208000 |