Local and remote controls on observed Arctic warming

Copyright © 2012 American Geophysical Union The Arctic is warming two to four times faster than the global average. Debate continues on the relative roles of local factors, such as sea ice reductions, versus remote factors in driving, or amplifying, Arctic warming. This study examines the vertical p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Screen, James A., Deser, Clara, Simmonds, Ian
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10871/10641
https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051598
Description
Summary:Copyright © 2012 American Geophysical Union The Arctic is warming two to four times faster than the global average. Debate continues on the relative roles of local factors, such as sea ice reductions, versus remote factors in driving, or amplifying, Arctic warming. This study examines the vertical profile and seasonality of observed tropospheric warming, and addresses its causes using atmospheric general circulation model simulations. The simulations enable the isolation and quantification of the role of three controlling factors of Arctic warming: 1) observed Arctic sea ice concentration (SIC) and sea surface temperature (SST) changes; 2) observed remote SST changes; and 3) direct radiative forcing (DRF) due to observed changes in greenhouse gases, ozone, aerosols, and solar output. Local SIC and SST changes explain a large portion of the observed Arctic near-surface warming, whereas remote SST changes explain the majority of observed warming aloft. DRF has primarily contributed to Arctic tropospheric warming in summer.