This paper assesses intermodel spread in the slope of global-mean precipitation change ΔP with respect to surface temperature change. The ambiguous estimates in the literature for this slope are ...reconciled by analyzing four experiments from phase 5 of CMIP (CMIP5) and considering different definitions of the slope. The smallest intermodel spread (a factor of 1.5 between the highest and lowest estimate) is found when using a definition that disentangles temperature-independent precipitation changes (the adjustments) from the slope of the temperature-dependent precipitation response; here this slope is referred to as the hydrological sensitivity parameter η. The estimates herein show that η is more robust than stated in most previous work. The authors demonstrate that adjustments and η estimated from a steplike quadrupling CO₂ experiment serve well to predict ΔP in a transient CO₂ experiment. The magnitude of η is smaller in the coupled ocean–atmosphere quadrupling CO₂ experiment than in the noncoupled atmosphere-only experiment. The offset in magnitude due to coupling suggests that intermodel spread may undersample uncertainty.
Also assessed are the relative contribution of η, the surface warming, and the adjustment on the spread in ΔP on different time scales. Intermodel variation of both η and the adjustment govern the spread in ΔP in the years immediately after the abrupt forcing change. In equilibrium, the uncertainty in ΔP is dominated by uncertainty in the equilibrium surface temperature response. Akernel analysis reveals that intermodel spread in η is dominated by intermodel spread in tropical lower tropospheric temperature and humidity changes and cloud changes.
By coordinating the design and distribution of global climate model simulations of the past, current, and future climate, the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) has become one of the ...foundational elements of climate science. However, the need to address an ever-expanding range of scientific questions arising from more and more research communities has made it necessary to revise the organization of CMIP. After a long and wide community consultation, a new and more federated structure has been put in place. It consists of three major elements: (1) a handful of common experiments, the DECK (Diagnostic, Evaluation and Characterization of Klima) and CMIP historical simulations (1850–near present) that will maintain continuity and help document basic characteristics of models across different phases of CMIP; (2) common standards, coordination, infrastructure, and documentation that will facilitate the distribution of model outputs and the characterization of the model ensemble; and (3) an ensemble of CMIP-Endorsed Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) that will be specific to a particular phase of CMIP (now CMIP6) and that will build on the DECK and CMIP historical simulations to address a large range of specific questions and fill the scientific gaps of the previous CMIP phases. The DECK and CMIP historical simulations, together with the use of CMIP data standards, will be the entry cards for models participating in CMIP. Participation in CMIP6-Endorsed MIPs by individual modelling groups will be at their own discretion and will depend on their scientific interests and priorities. With the Grand Science Challenges of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) as its scientific backdrop, CMIP6 will address three broad questions: – How does the Earth system respond to forcing? – What are the origins and consequences of systematic model biases? – How can we assess future climate changes given internal climate variability, predictability, and uncertainties in scenarios? This CMIP6 overview paper presents the background and rationale for the new structure of CMIP, provides a detailed description of the DECK and CMIP6 historical simulations, and includes a brief introduction to the 21 CMIP6-Endorsed MIPs.
Idealized climate change experiments using fixed sea-surface temperature are investigated to determine whether zonally symmetric aquaplanet configurations are useful for understanding climate ...feedbacks in more realistic configurations. The aquaplanets capture many of the robust responses of the large-scale circulation and hydrologic cycle to both warming the sea-surface temperature and quadrupling atmospheric CO
2
. The cloud response to both perturbations varies across models in both Earth-like and aquaplanet configurations, and this spread arises primarily from regions of large-scale subsidence. Most models produce a consistent cloud change across the subsidence regimes, and the feedback in trade-wind cumulus regions dominates the tropical response. It is shown that these trade-wind regions have similar cloud feedback in Earth-like and aquaplanet warming experiments. The tropical average cloud feedback of the Earth-like experiment is captured by five of eight aquaplanets, and the three outliers are investigated to understand the discrepancy. In two models, the discrepancy is due to warming induced dissipation of stratocumulus decks in the Earth-like configuration which are not represented in the aquaplanet. One model shows a circulation response in the aquaplanet experiment accompanied by a cloud response that differs from the Earth-like configuration. Quadrupling atmospheric CO
2
in aquaplanets produces slightly greater adjusted forcing than in Earth-like configurations, showing that land-surface effects dampen the adjusted forcing. The analysis demonstrates how aquaplanets, as part of a model hierarchy, help elucidate robust aspects of climate change and develop understanding of the processes underlying them.
Thermodynamic control of anvil cloud amount Bony, Sandrine; Stevens, Bjorn; Coppin, David ...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS,
08/2016, Letnik:
113, Številka:
32
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
General circulation models show that as the surface temperature increases, the convective anvil clouds shrink. By analyzing radiative–convective equilibrium simulations, we show that this behavior is ...rooted in basic energetic and thermodynamic properties of the atmosphere: As the climate warms, the clouds rise and remain at nearly the same temperature, but find themselves in a more stable atmosphere; this enhanced stability reduces the convective outflow in the upper troposphere and decreases the anvil cloud fraction. By warming the troposphere and increasing the upper-tropospheric stability, the clustering of deep convection also reduces the convective outflow and the anvil cloud fraction. When clouds are radiatively active, this robust coupling between temperature, high clouds, and circulation exerts a positive feedback on convective aggregation and favors the maintenance of strongly aggregated atmospheric states at high temperatures. This stability iris mechanism likely contributes to the narrowing of rainy areas as the climate warms. Whether or not it influences climate sensitivity requires further investigation.
ATMOSPHERIC MOIST CONVECTION Stevens, Bjorn
Annual review of earth and planetary sciences,
01/2005, Letnik:
33, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Various forms of atmospheric moist convection are reviewed through a consideration of three prevalent regimes: stratocumulus; trade-wind; and deep, precipitating, maritime convection. These regimes ...are chosen because they are structural components of the general circulation of the atmosphere and because they highlight distinguishing features of this polymorphous phenomenon. In particular, the ways in which varied forms of moist convection communicate with remote parts of the flow through mechanisms other than the rearrangement of fluid parcels are emphasized. These include radiative, gravity wave, and/or microphysical (precipitation) processes. For each regime, basic aspects of its phenomenology are presented along with theoretical frameworks that have arisen to help rationalize the phenomenology. Recent developments suggest that the increased capacity for numerical simulation and increasingly refined remote sensing capabilities bodes well for major advances in the coming years.
The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is a major mode of climate variability with important societal impacts. Most previous explanations identify the driver of the AMO as the ocean circulation, ...specifically the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). Here we show that the main features of the observed AMO are reproduced in models where the ocean heat transport is prescribed and thus cannot be the driver. Allowing the ocean circulation to interact with the atmosphere does not significantly alter the characteristics of the AMO in the current generation of climate models. These results suggest that the AMO is the response to stochastic forcing from the mid-latitude atmospheric circulation, with thermal coupling playing a role in the tropics. In this view, the AMOC and other ocean circulation changes would be largely a response to, not a cause of, the AMO.
The phrasing of the first of three questions motivating CMIP6 – “How does the Earth system respond to forcing?” – suggests that forcing is always well-known, yet the radiative forcing to which this ...question refers has historically been uncertain in coordinated experiments even as understanding of how best to infer radiative forcing has evolved. The Radiative Forcing Model Intercomparison Project (RFMIP) endorsed by CMIP6 seeks to provide a foundation for answering the question through three related activities: (i) accurate characterization of the effective radiative forcing relative to a near-preindustrial baseline and careful diagnosis of the components of this forcing; (ii) assessment of the absolute accuracy of clear-sky radiative transfer parameterizations against reference models on the global scales relevant for climate modeling; and (iii) identification of robust model responses to tightly specified aerosol radiative forcing from 1850 to present. Complete characterization of effective radiative forcing can be accomplished with 180 years (Tier 1) of atmosphere-only simulation using a sea-surface temperature and sea ice concentration climatology derived from the host model's preindustrial control simulation. Assessment of parameterization error requires trivial amounts of computation but the development of small amounts of infrastructure: new, spectrally detailed diagnostic output requested as two snapshots at present-day and preindustrial conditions, and results from the model's radiation code applied to specified atmospheric conditions. The search for robust responses to aerosol changes relies on the CMIP6 specification of anthropogenic aerosol properties; models using this specification can contribute to RFMIP with no additional simulation, while those using a full aerosol model are requested to perform at least one and up to four 165-year coupled ocean–atmosphere simulations at Tier 1.
Global warming in response to external radiative forcing is determined by the feedback of the climate system. Recent studies have suggested that simple mathematical models incorporating a radiative ...response which is related to upper- and deep-ocean disequilibrium (ocean heat uptake efficacy), inhomogeneous patterns of surface warming and radiative feedbacks (pattern effect), or an explicit dependence of the strength of radiative feedbacks on surface temperature change (feedback temperature dependence) may explain the climate response in atmosphere-ocean coupled general circulation models (AOGCMs) or can be useful for interpreting the instrumental record. We analyze a two-layer model with an ocean heat transport efficacy, a two-region model with region specific heat capacities and radiative responses; a one-layer model with a temperature dependent feedback; and a model which combines elements of the two-layer/region models and the state-dependent feedback parameter. We show that, from the perspective of the globally averaged surface temperature and radiative imbalance, the two-region and two-layer models are equivalent. State-dependence of the feedback parameter introduces a nonlinearity in the system which makes the adjustment timescales forcing-dependent. Neither the linear two-region/layer models, nor the state-dependent feedback model adequately describes the behavior of complex climate models. The model which combines elements of both can adequately describe the response of more comprehensive models but may require more experimental input than is available from single forcing realizations.
Abstract
The mechanisms that govern the response of shallow cumulus, such as found in the trade wind regions, to a warming of the atmosphere in which large-scale atmospheric processes act to keep ...relative humidity constant are explored. Two robust effects are identified. First, and as is well known, the liquid water lapse rate increases with temperature and tends to increase the amount of water in clouds, making clouds more reflective of solar radiation. Second, and less well appreciated, the surface fluxes increase with the saturation specific humidity, which itself is a strong function of temperature. Using large-eddy simulations it is shown that the liquid water lapse rate acts as a negative feedback: a positive temperature increase driven by radiative forcing is reduced by the increase in cloud water and hence cloud albedo. However, this effect is more than compensated by a reduction of cloudiness associated with the deepening and relative drying of the boundary layer, driven by larger surface moisture fluxes. Because they are so robust, these effects are thought to underlie changes in the structure of the marine boundary layer as a result of global warming.
PDF
