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  • 1
    Publication Date: 2016-01-15
    Description: Reduction of the Arctic sea ice cover can affect the atmospheric circulation and thus impact the climate beyond the Arctic. The atmospheric response may, however, vary with the geographical location of sea ice loss. The atmospheric sensitivity to the location of sea ice loss is studied using a general circulation model in a configuration that allows combination of a prescribed sea ice cover and an active mixed layer ocean. This hybrid setup makes it possible to simulate the isolated impact of sea ice loss and provides a more complete response compared to experiments with fixed sea surface temperatures. Three investigated sea ice scenarios with ice loss in different regions all exhibit substantial near-surface warming, which peaks over the area of ice loss. The maximum warming is found during winter, delayed compared to the maximum sea ice reduction. The wintertime response of the midlatitude atmospheric circulation shows a nonuniform sensitivity to the location of sea ice reduction. While all three scenarios exhibit decreased zonal winds related to high-latitude geopotential height increases, the magnitudes and locations of the anomalies vary between the simulations. Investigation of the North Atlantic Oscillation reveals a high sensitivity to the location of the ice loss. The northern center of action exhibits clear shifts in response to the different sea ice reductions. Sea ice loss in the Atlantic and Pacific sectors of the Arctic cause westward and eastward shifts, respectively.
    Print ISSN: 0894-8755
    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0442
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
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  • 2
    Publication Date: 2014-06-05
    Description: A vertically nonuniform warming of the troposphere yields a lapse rate feedback by altering the infrared irradiance to space relative to that of a vertically uniform tropospheric warming. The lapse rate feedback is negative at low latitudes, as a result of moist convective processes, and positive at high latitudes, due to stable stratification conditions that effectively trap warming near the surface. It is shown that this feedback pattern leads to polar amplification of the temperature response induced by a radiative forcing. The results are obtained by suppressing the lapse rate feedback in the Community Climate System Model, version 4 (CCSM4). The lapse rate feedback accounts for 15% of the Arctic amplification and 20% of the amplification in the Antarctic region. The fraction of the amplification that can be attributed to the surface albedo feedback, associated with melting of snow and ice, is 40% in the Arctic and 65% in Antarctica. It is further found that the surface albedo and lapse rate feedbacks interact considerably at high latitudes to the extent that they cannot be considered independent feedback mechanisms at the global scale.
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    Electronic ISSN: 1520-0442
    Topics: Geography , Geosciences , Physics
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  • 3
    Publication Date: 2013-08-06
    Description: A coupled atmosphere–sea ice–ocean model is used in an aqua-planet setting to examine the role of the basin geometry for the climate and ocean circulation. The basin geometry has a present-day-like topology with two idealized northern basins and a circumpolar ocean in the south. A suite of experiments is described in which the southward extents of the two (gridpoint wide) “continents” and the basin widths have been varied. When the two basins have identical shapes, the coupled model can attain a symmetric climate state with northern deep-water formation in both basins as well as asymmetric states, where the deep-water formation occurs only in one of the basins and Atlantic–Pacific-like hydrographic differences develop. A difference in the southward extents of the land barriers can enhance as well as reduce the zonal asymmetries of the atmosphere–ocean circulation. This arises from an interplay between the basin boundaries and the wind-driven Sverdrup circulation, which controls the interbasin exchange of heat and salt. Remarkably, when the short “African” continent is located near or equatorward of the zero wind line in the Southern Hemisphere, the deep-water formation becomes uniquely localized to the “Atlantic”-like basin with the long western boundary. In this case, the salinification is accomplished primarily by a westward wind-routed interbasin salt transport. Furthermore, experiments using geometries with asymmetries in both continental extents and basin widths suggest that in the World Ocean these two fundamental basin asymmetries should independently be strong enough for uniquely localizing the Northern Hemisphere deep-water formation to the Atlantic Ocean.
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  • 4
    Publication Date: 2012-04-10
    Description: When climate is forced by a doubling of CO2, a number of feedback processes are induced, such as changes of water vapor, clouds, and surface albedo. Here the CO2 forcing and concomitant feedbacks are studied individually using a general circulation model coupled to an aquaplanet mixed layer ocean. A technique for fixing the radiative effects of moisture and clouds by reusing these variables from 1 × CO2 and 2 × CO2 equilibrium climates in the model’s radiation code allows for a detailed decomposition of forcings, feedbacks, and responses. The cloud feedback in this model is found to have a weak global average effect and surface albedo feedbacks have been eliminated. As in previous studies, the water vapor feedback is found to approximately double climate sensitivity, but while its radiative effect is strongly amplified at low latitudes, the resulting response displays about the same degree of polar amplification as the full all-feedbacks experiment. In fact, atmospheric energy transports are found to change in a way that yields the same meridional pattern of response as when the water vapor feedback is turned off. The authors conclude that while the water vapor feedback does not in itself lead to polar amplification by increasing the ratio of high- to low-latitude warming, it does double climate sensitivity both at low and high latitudes. A polar amplification induced by other feedbacks in the system, such as the Planck and lapse rate feedbacks here, is thus strengthened in the sense of increasing the difference in high- and low-latitude warming.
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  • 5
    Publication Date: 2013-06-15
    Description: In this study, southward intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) shifts are investigated in three different scenarios: Northern Hemispheric cooling, Southern Hemispheric warming, and a bipolar seesaw-like forcing that combines the latter two. The experiments demonstrate the mutual effects that northern- and southern-high-latitude forcings exert on tropical precipitation, suggesting a time-scale-dependent dominance of northern versus southern forcings. In accordance with this, two-phase tropical precipitation shifts are suggested, involving a fast component dominated by the high-northern-latitude forcing and a slower component due to the southern-high-latitude forcing. The results may thus be useful for the future understanding and interpretation of high-resolution tropical paleoprecipitation proxies and their relation to high-latitude records (e.g., ice core data). The experiments also show that Southern Ocean warming has a global impact, affecting both the tropics and northern extratropics, as seen in a southward ITCZ shift and mid- and high-latitude North Atlantic surface temperature and wind changes. In terms of dynamical considerations, the tropical circulation response to high-latitude forcing is found to be nonlinear: the atmospheric heat transport and Hadley cell anomalies differ significantly (in magnitude) when comparing the warming and cooling experiments. These are related to different interhemispheric temperature gradients that are altered mainly by nonlinearities in water vapor response. Decomposition of the top-of-the-atmosphere flux response into atmospheric feedback effects shows the dominance of water vapor and cloud feedbacks in the tropics, with the longwave cloud feedback effect governing the overall cloud response.
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  • 6
    Publication Date: 2013-03-15
    Description: Climate projections suggest that an ice-free summer Arctic Ocean is possible within several decades and with this comes the prospect of increased ship traffic and safety concerns. The daily sea ice concentration tendency in five Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) simulations is compared with observations to reveal that many models underestimate this quantity that describes high-frequency ice movements, particularly in the marginal ice zone. To investigate whether high-frequency ice variability impacts the atmosphere, the Community Atmosphere Model, version 3.0 (CAM3.0), is forced by sea ice with and without daily fluctuations. Two 100-member ensemble experiments with daily varying (DAILY) and smoothly varying (SMTH) sea ice are conducted, along with a climatological control, for an anomalously low ice period (August 2006–November 2007). Results are presented for three periods: September 2006, October 2006, and December–February (DJF) 2006/07. The atmospheric response differs between DAILY and SMTH. In September, sea ice differences lead to an anomalous high and weaker storm activity over northern Europe. During October, the ice expands equatorward faster in DAILY than SMTH in the Siberian seas and leads to a local response of near-surface cooling. In DJF, there is a 1.5-hPa positive sea level pressure anomaly over North America, leading to anomalous northerly flow and anomalously cool continental U.S. temperatures. While the atmospheric responses are modest, the differences arising from high temporal frequency ice variability cannot be ignored. Increasing the accuracy of coupled model sea ice variations on short time scales is needed to improve short-term coupled model forecasts.
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  • 7
    Publication Date: 2019-06-12
    Description: A doubling of the atmospheric CO2 content leads to global warming that is amplified in the polar regions. The CO2 forcing also leads to a change of the atmospheric energy transport. This transport change affects the local warming induced by the CO2 forcing. Using the Community Earth System Model (CESM), the direct response to the transport change is investigated. Divergences of the transport change associated with a CO2 doubling are implemented as a forcing in the 1 × CO2 preindustrial control climate. This forcing is zero in the global mean. In response to a CO2 increase in CESM, the northward atmospheric energy transport decreases at the Arctic boundary. However, the transport change still leads to a warming of the Arctic. This is due to a shift between dry static and latent transport components, so that although the dry static transport decreases, the latent transport increases at the Arctic boundary, which is consistent with other model studies. Because of a greenhouse effect associated with the latent transport, the cooling caused by a change of the dry static component is more than compensated for by the warming induced by the change of the latent transport. Similar results are found for the Antarctic region, but the transport change is larger in the Southern Hemisphere than in its northern counterpart. As a consequence, the Antarctic region warms to the extent that this warming leads to global warming that is likely enhanced by the surface albedo feedback associated with considerable ice retreat in the Southern Hemisphere.
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