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| Titel |
Water vapor feedback amplifies high-latitude warming |
| VerfasserIn |
Peter L. Langen, Thorsten Mauritsen, Rune G. Graversen |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2011
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 13 (2011) |
| Datensatznummer |
250052993
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| Zusammenfassung |
| When the climate system is forced by a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 content, a number
of feedback processes are activated, such as changes of water vapor, clouds and surface
albedo. Here the CO2 forcing and the associated feedbacks of water vapor and clouds are
studied individually using a general circulation model (the NCAR CAM3) coupled to an
aquaplanet mixed-layer ocean. A technique for fixing the radiative effects of moisture and
clouds allows for a detailed decomposition of a CO2 forcing and its associated water vapor
and cloud feedbacks in terms of their radiative impact and their responses. The cloud
feedback is in this model found to give only a small global average effect. As in previous
studies, the water vapor radiative feedback is found to approximately double the
climate sensitivity, but while its radiative effect is strongest at low latitudes, the
resulting climate response displays about the same degree of polar amplification as
the full all-feedback experiment. It is found that although CO2 forcing and water
vapor radiative feedback are not surface processes, their associated high-latitude
temperature changes are greatest near the surface. This implies, conversely, that
a surface amplified warming is not necessarily due to surface based feedbacks. |
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