Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming
This study analyzes the response of global water vapor to global warming in a series of fully coupled climate model simulations. The authors find that a roughly 7% K⁻¹ rate of increase of water vapor with global surface temperature is robust only for rapid anthropogenic-like climate change. For slow...
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_13016 2023-09-05T13:23:30+02:00 Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming Back, Larissa (author) Russ, Karen (author) Liu, Zhengyu (author) Inoue, Kuniaki (author) Zhang, Jiaxu (author) Otto-Bliesner, Bette (author) 2013-11-01 application/pdf http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-019-912 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00118.1 en eng American Meteorological Society Journal of Climate http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-019-912 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00118.1 ark:/85065/d7z60pzq Copyright 2013 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work. Text article 2013 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00118.1 2023-08-14T18:41:00Z This study analyzes the response of global water vapor to global warming in a series of fully coupled climate model simulations. The authors find that a roughly 7% K⁻¹ rate of increase of water vapor with global surface temperature is robust only for rapid anthropogenic-like climate change. For slower warming that occurred naturally in the past, the Southern Ocean has time to equilibrate, producing a different pattern of surface warming, so that water vapor increases at only 4.2% K⁻¹. This lower rate of increase of water vapor with warming is not due to relative humidity changes or differences in mean lower-tropospheric temperature. A temperature of over 80°C would be required in the Clausius–Clapeyron relationship to match the 4.2% K⁻¹ rate of increase. Instead, the low rate of increase is due to spatially heterogeneous warming. During slower global warming, there is enhanced warming at southern high latitudes, and hence less warming in the tropics per kelvin of global surface temperature increase. This leads to a smaller global water vapor increase, because most of the atmospheric water vapor is in the tropics. A formula is proposed that applies to general warming scenarios. This study also examines the response of global-mean precipitation and the meridional profile of precipitation minus evaporation and compares the latter to thermodynamic scalings. It is found that global-mean precipitation changes are remarkably robust between rapid and slow warming. Thermodynamic scalings for the rapid- and slow-warming zonal-mean precipitation are similar, but the precipitation changes are significantly different, suggesting that circulation changes are important in driving these differences. Article in Journal/Newspaper Southern Ocean OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Southern Ocean Journal of Climate 26 22 8781 8786 |
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Open Polar |
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OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
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ftncar |
language |
English |
description |
This study analyzes the response of global water vapor to global warming in a series of fully coupled climate model simulations. The authors find that a roughly 7% K⁻¹ rate of increase of water vapor with global surface temperature is robust only for rapid anthropogenic-like climate change. For slower warming that occurred naturally in the past, the Southern Ocean has time to equilibrate, producing a different pattern of surface warming, so that water vapor increases at only 4.2% K⁻¹. This lower rate of increase of water vapor with warming is not due to relative humidity changes or differences in mean lower-tropospheric temperature. A temperature of over 80°C would be required in the Clausius–Clapeyron relationship to match the 4.2% K⁻¹ rate of increase. Instead, the low rate of increase is due to spatially heterogeneous warming. During slower global warming, there is enhanced warming at southern high latitudes, and hence less warming in the tropics per kelvin of global surface temperature increase. This leads to a smaller global water vapor increase, because most of the atmospheric water vapor is in the tropics. A formula is proposed that applies to general warming scenarios. This study also examines the response of global-mean precipitation and the meridional profile of precipitation minus evaporation and compares the latter to thermodynamic scalings. It is found that global-mean precipitation changes are remarkably robust between rapid and slow warming. Thermodynamic scalings for the rapid- and slow-warming zonal-mean precipitation are similar, but the precipitation changes are significantly different, suggesting that circulation changes are important in driving these differences. |
author2 |
Back, Larissa (author) Russ, Karen (author) Liu, Zhengyu (author) Inoue, Kuniaki (author) Zhang, Jiaxu (author) Otto-Bliesner, Bette (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
spellingShingle |
Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
title_short |
Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
title_full |
Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
title_fullStr |
Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
title_sort |
global hydrological cycle response to rapid and slow global warming |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-019-912 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00118.1 |
geographic |
Southern Ocean |
geographic_facet |
Southern Ocean |
genre |
Southern Ocean |
genre_facet |
Southern Ocean |
op_relation |
Journal of Climate http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-019-912 doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00118.1 ark:/85065/d7z60pzq |
op_rights |
Copyright 2013 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00118.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Climate |
container_volume |
26 |
container_issue |
22 |
container_start_page |
8781 |
op_container_end_page |
8786 |
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1776204104265105408 |