Infrared Radiative Effects of Increasing CO2 and CH4 on the Atmosphere in Antarctica Compared to the Arctic

Abstract We simulated the seasonal temperature evolution in the atmosphere of Antarctica and the Arctic focusing on infrared processes. Contributions by other processes were parametrized and kept fixed throughout the simulations. The model was run for current CO2 and CH4 and for doubled concentratio...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Justus Notholt, Holger Schmithüsen, Matthias Buschmann, Axel Kleidon
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL105600
https://doaj.org/article/922905f87469485ab80d2eaae206b0bd
Description
Summary:Abstract We simulated the seasonal temperature evolution in the atmosphere of Antarctica and the Arctic focusing on infrared processes. Contributions by other processes were parametrized and kept fixed throughout the simulations. The model was run for current CO2 and CH4 and for doubled concentrations. For doubling CH4 the warming in Antarctica is restricted to the lowest few hundred meters above the surface while in the Arctic we find a warming in the whole troposphere. We find that the amount of water is the main driver for the differences between both polar regions. When increasing both, CO2 and CH4 from pre‐industrial values to current concentrations, and averaged over the whole troposphere, we find a warming of 0.42 K for the Arctic and a slight cooling of 0.01 K for Antarctica. Our results contribute to the understanding of the lack of warming seen in Antarctica throughout the last decades.