Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic
Infrared radiative processes are implicated in Arctic warming and sea-ice decline. The infrared cloud radiative effect (CRE) at the surface is modulated by cloud properties; however, CRE also depends on humidity because clouds emit at wavelengths that are semi-transparent to greenhouse gases, most n...
Published in: | Nature Communications |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Nature Publishing Group
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4682107/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26657324 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4682107 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4682107 2023-05-15T14:35:57+02:00 Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic Cox, Christopher J. Walden, Von P. Rowe, Penny M. Shupe, Matthew D. 2015-12-10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4682107/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26657324 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 en eng Nature Publishing Group http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4682107/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26657324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY Article Text 2015 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 2016-01-03T01:30:17Z Infrared radiative processes are implicated in Arctic warming and sea-ice decline. The infrared cloud radiative effect (CRE) at the surface is modulated by cloud properties; however, CRE also depends on humidity because clouds emit at wavelengths that are semi-transparent to greenhouse gases, most notably water vapour. Here we show how temperature and humidity control CRE through competing influences between the mid- and far-infrared. At constant relative humidity, CRE does not decrease with increasing temperature/absolute humidity as expected, but rather is found to be approximately constant for temperatures characteristic of the Arctic. This stability is disrupted if relative humidity varies. Our findings explain observed seasonal and regional variability in Arctic CRE of order 10 W m−2. With the physical properties of Arctic clouds held constant, we calculate recent increases in CRE of 1–5 W m−2 in autumn and winter, which are projected to reach 5–15 W m−2 by 2050, implying increased sensitivity of the surface to clouds. Text Arctic Sea ice PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Nature Communications 6 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Article |
spellingShingle |
Article Cox, Christopher J. Walden, Von P. Rowe, Penny M. Shupe, Matthew D. Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic |
topic_facet |
Article |
description |
Infrared radiative processes are implicated in Arctic warming and sea-ice decline. The infrared cloud radiative effect (CRE) at the surface is modulated by cloud properties; however, CRE also depends on humidity because clouds emit at wavelengths that are semi-transparent to greenhouse gases, most notably water vapour. Here we show how temperature and humidity control CRE through competing influences between the mid- and far-infrared. At constant relative humidity, CRE does not decrease with increasing temperature/absolute humidity as expected, but rather is found to be approximately constant for temperatures characteristic of the Arctic. This stability is disrupted if relative humidity varies. Our findings explain observed seasonal and regional variability in Arctic CRE of order 10 W m−2. With the physical properties of Arctic clouds held constant, we calculate recent increases in CRE of 1–5 W m−2 in autumn and winter, which are projected to reach 5–15 W m−2 by 2050, implying increased sensitivity of the surface to clouds. |
format |
Text |
author |
Cox, Christopher J. Walden, Von P. Rowe, Penny M. Shupe, Matthew D. |
author_facet |
Cox, Christopher J. Walden, Von P. Rowe, Penny M. Shupe, Matthew D. |
author_sort |
Cox, Christopher J. |
title |
Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic |
title_short |
Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic |
title_full |
Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic |
title_fullStr |
Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming Arctic |
title_sort |
humidity trends imply increased sensitivity to clouds in a warming arctic |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4682107/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26657324 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Sea ice |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4682107/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26657324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2015, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10117 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
6 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766308687029207040 |