Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space
Pronounced warming in the Arctic region, coined Arctic amplification, is an important feature of observed and modelled climate change1, 2. Arctic amplification is generally attributed to the retreat of sea-ice3 and snow, and the associated surface-albedo feedback4, in conjunction with other processe...
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ftunivwagenin:oai:library.wur.nl:wurpubs/414328 2024-02-04T09:52:25+01:00 Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space Bintanja, R. Graversen, R.G. Hazeleger, W. 2011 application/pdf https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/arctic-winter-warming-amplified-by-the-thermal-inversion-and-cons https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1285 en eng https://edepot.wur.nl/188396 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/arctic-winter-warming-amplified-by-the-thermal-inversion-and-cons doi:10.1038/NGEO1285 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Wageningen University & Research Nature Geoscience 4 (2011) ISSN: 1752-0894 climate-change models polar amplification sea-ice surface albedo feedback info:eu-repo/semantics/article Article/Letter to editor info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2011 ftunivwagenin https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1285 2024-01-10T23:22:22Z Pronounced warming in the Arctic region, coined Arctic amplification, is an important feature of observed and modelled climate change1, 2. Arctic amplification is generally attributed to the retreat of sea-ice3 and snow, and the associated surface-albedo feedback4, in conjunction with other processes5, 6, 7, 8. In addition, the predominant thermal surface inversion in winter has been suggested to pose a negative feedback to Arctic warming by enhancing infrared radiative cooling9. Here we use the coupled climate model EC-Earth10 in idealized climate change experiments to quantify the individual contributions of the surface and the atmosphere to infrared radiative cooling. We find that the surface inversion in fact intensifies Arctic amplification, because the ability of the Arctic wintertime clear-sky atmosphere to cool to space decreases with inversion strength. Specifically, we find that the cold layers close to the surface in Arctic winter, where most of the warming takes place, hardly contribute to the infrared radiation that goes out to space. Instead, the additional radiation that is generated by the warming of these layers is directed downwards, and thus amplifies the warming. We conclude that the predominant Arctic wintertime temperature inversion damps infrared cooling of the system, and thus constitutes a positive warming feedback. Article in Journal/Newspaper albedo Arctic Arctic Climate change Sea ice Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library Arctic Nature Geoscience 4 11 758 761 |
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Wageningen UR (University & Research Centre): Digital Library |
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ftunivwagenin |
language |
English |
topic |
climate-change models polar amplification sea-ice surface albedo feedback |
spellingShingle |
climate-change models polar amplification sea-ice surface albedo feedback Bintanja, R. Graversen, R.G. Hazeleger, W. Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
topic_facet |
climate-change models polar amplification sea-ice surface albedo feedback |
description |
Pronounced warming in the Arctic region, coined Arctic amplification, is an important feature of observed and modelled climate change1, 2. Arctic amplification is generally attributed to the retreat of sea-ice3 and snow, and the associated surface-albedo feedback4, in conjunction with other processes5, 6, 7, 8. In addition, the predominant thermal surface inversion in winter has been suggested to pose a negative feedback to Arctic warming by enhancing infrared radiative cooling9. Here we use the coupled climate model EC-Earth10 in idealized climate change experiments to quantify the individual contributions of the surface and the atmosphere to infrared radiative cooling. We find that the surface inversion in fact intensifies Arctic amplification, because the ability of the Arctic wintertime clear-sky atmosphere to cool to space decreases with inversion strength. Specifically, we find that the cold layers close to the surface in Arctic winter, where most of the warming takes place, hardly contribute to the infrared radiation that goes out to space. Instead, the additional radiation that is generated by the warming of these layers is directed downwards, and thus amplifies the warming. We conclude that the predominant Arctic wintertime temperature inversion damps infrared cooling of the system, and thus constitutes a positive warming feedback. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bintanja, R. Graversen, R.G. Hazeleger, W. |
author_facet |
Bintanja, R. Graversen, R.G. Hazeleger, W. |
author_sort |
Bintanja, R. |
title |
Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
title_short |
Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
title_full |
Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
title_fullStr |
Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
title_sort |
arctic winter warming amplified by the thermal inversion and consequent low infrared cooling to space |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/arctic-winter-warming-amplified-by-the-thermal-inversion-and-cons https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1285 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
albedo Arctic Arctic Climate change Sea ice |
genre_facet |
albedo Arctic Arctic Climate change Sea ice |
op_source |
Nature Geoscience 4 (2011) ISSN: 1752-0894 |
op_relation |
https://edepot.wur.nl/188396 https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/arctic-winter-warming-amplified-by-the-thermal-inversion-and-cons doi:10.1038/NGEO1285 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Wageningen University & Research |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/NGEO1285 |
container_title |
Nature Geoscience |
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4 |
container_issue |
11 |
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758 |
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761 |
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