Coupling between Arctic feedbacks and changes in poleward energy transport

Hwang, Yean Ren; Frierson, Dargan M. W.; Kay, J. E.

doi:10.1029/2011gl048546

Cited by 186 publications

(220 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In this approach one or more feedback loops are artificially forced to be turned off (Graversen and Wang 2009;Hall 2004;Hall and Manabe 1999;Schneider et al 1999;Vavrus 2004). While this approach provides valuable insight into the interaction of the suppressed and nonsuppressed feedbacks, it may force the remaining feedbacks to make up for the suppressed feedback (Hwang et al 2011). In practice, not all individual contributions are evaluated because of technical hurdles, and there arise many synergy terms, which require an enormous number of experiments and are difficult to interpret (Stein and Alpert 1993).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Seasonality of Arctic Warming Processes in Two Different Versions of the MIROC GCM

et al. 2014

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It is one of the most robust projected responses of climate models to the increase of atmospheric CO 2 concentration that the Arctic experiences a rapid warming with a magnitude larger than the rest of the world. While many processes are proposed as important, the relative contribution of individual processes to the Arctic warming is not often investigated systematically. Feedbacks are quantified in two different versions of an atmosphere-ocean GCM under idealized transient experiments based on an energy balance analysis that extends from the surface to the top of the atmosphere. The emphasis is placed on the largest warming from late autumn to early winter (October-December) and the difference from other seasons. It is confirmed that dominating processes vary with season. In autumn, the largest contribution to the Arctic surface warming is made by a reduction of ocean heat storage and cloud radiative feedback. In the annual mean, on the other hand, it is the albedo feedback that contributes the most, with increasing ocean heat uptake to the deeper layers working as a negative feedback. While the qualitative results are robust between the two models, they differ quantitatively, indicating the need for further constraint on each process. Ocean heat uptake, lower tropospheric stability, and low-level cloud response probably require special attention.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Robust Seasonality of Arctic Warming Processes in Two Different Versions of the MIROC GCM

et al. 2014

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“…In contrast, the warming delay in the North Atlantic is often attributed to a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in a warming climate, resulting in a cooling tendency (Russell and Rind 1999;Wood et al 1999;Weaver et al 2007;Xie and Vallis 2011;Kim and An 2013;Drijfhout et al 2012;Rugenstein et al 2013;Winton et al 2013). The mechanisms behind Arctic amplification are vigorously debated in the literature and involve a complex interplay of local climate feedbacks and atmospheric and oceanic heat transport (e.g., Holland and Bitz 2003;Serreze and Barry 2011;Hwang et al 2011;Mahlstein and Knutti 2011;Kay et al 2012). Our study helps to clarify some of these questions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…We observe much more structure in the coupled models than in our ocean-only calculation and the magnitudes of the airsea flux exceed those of our model locally, particularly in high-latitude regions. This is not not unexpected, since we have applied a smaller radiative forcing in our ocean-only calculation than in the CMIP5 models and, importantly, have not accounted for changes in atmospheric heat transport that act to flux more energy poleward under global warming (Hwang et al 2011). Nonetheless, the broad patterns are consistent with our ocean-only calculations with peaks of air-sea heat flux anomalies into the ocean within the warming delay regions around 60 • N and 60 • S.…”

Section: Regional Patterns Of Warmingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ocean’s role in the transient response of climate to abrupt greenhouse gas forcing

et al. 2014

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“…With their strong radiative effects, clouds have the potential to influence circulations both locally and nonlocally by affecting atmospheric energy transports (25,26). Fig.…”

Section: Shortwave Cloud Radiative Forcing Biasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Link between the double-Intertropical Convergence Zone problem and cloud biases over the Southern Ocean

Hwang

Frierson

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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334

306

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The double-Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) problem, in which excessive precipitation is produced in the Southern Hemisphere tropics, which resembles a Southern Hemisphere counterpart to the strong Northern Hemisphere ITCZ, is perhaps the most significant and most persistent bias of global climate models. In this study, we look to the extratropics for possible causes of the double-ITCZ problem by performing a global energetic analysis with historical simulations from a suite of global climate models and comparing with satellite observations of the Earth's energy budget. Our results show that models with more energy flux into the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere (at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface) tend to have a stronger double-ITCZ bias, consistent with recent theoretical studies that suggest that the ITCZ is drawn toward heating even outside the tropics. In particular, we find that cloud biases over the Southern Ocean explain most of the modelto-model differences in the amount of excessive precipitation in Southern Hemisphere tropics, and are suggested to be responsible for this aspect of the double-ITCZ problem in most global climate models. tropical precipitation | model biases | cloud radiative forcing | atmospheric energy transport | general circulation P recipitation is essential to life, with its variation tightly linked to water and food security. Providing the best estimate of future trends in precipitation has always been a primary goal of global climate models. For this reason, global climate models are closely scrutinized not only on their ability to simulate large-scale dynamics but also on their skill in simulating precipitation distributions at regional scales. One naturally only trusts model forecasts of precipitation if there is substantial fidelity in simulating the current precipitation climatology.Because precipitation features are related with processes occurring at a tremendous range of time and spatial scales, their simulation remains challenging. The main precipitation feature that most global climate models have difficulty capturing is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the deep tropics at around 6°N, a narrow latitude band with some of the most intense rainfall on Earth. Despite decades of work by modeling centers around the world, the double-ITCZ problem, in which excessive precipitation is produced in the Southern Hemisphere tropics resembling the stronger Northern Hemisphere ITCZ, remains the largest precipitation bias of most state-of-the-art global climate models. There has been little progress in reducing this bias over recent years (1-3) (Figs. 1 A and B and 2A).The double-ITCZ bias is most apparent in the strip 5-15°S over the central and east Pacific, and a similar feature is visible in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans in most models. Most of the proposed reasons for tropical precipitation biases involve local mechanisms within or close to the tropics, for example, warm sea surface temperature errors in the coastal upwelling region off Peru (4, 5), ofte...

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Coupling between Arctic feedbacks and changes in poleward energy transport

Cited by 186 publications

References 23 publications

Robust Seasonality of Arctic Warming Processes in Two Different Versions of the MIROC GCM

Robust Seasonality of Arctic Warming Processes in Two Different Versions of the MIROC GCM

The ocean’s role in the transient response of climate to abrupt greenhouse gas forcing

Link between the double-Intertropical Convergence Zone problem and cloud biases over the Southern Ocean

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