The role of atmospheric heat transport and regional feedbacks in the Arctic warming at equilibrium

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 3457-3472 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masakazu Yoshimori ◽  
Ayako Abe-Ouchi ◽  
Alexandre Laîné
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transport ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Warming ◽  
Atmospheric Heat Transport ◽  
Atmospheric Heat

scholarly journals Coupled High-Latitude Climate Feedbacks and Their Impact on Atmospheric Heat Transport

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Feldl ◽  
Simona Bordoni ◽  
Timothy M. Merlis
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transport ◽  
High Latitude ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Hadley Cell ◽  
Lapse Rate ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Albedo Feedback ◽  
Atmospheric Heat Transport ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Atmospheric Heat

The response of atmospheric heat transport to anthropogenic warming is determined by the anomalous meridional energy gradient. Feedback analysis offers a characterization of that gradient and hence reveals how uncertainty in physical processes may translate into uncertainty in the circulation response. However, individual feedbacks do not act in isolation. Anomalies associated with one feedback may be compensated by another, as is the case for the positive water vapor and negative lapse rate feedbacks in the tropics. Here a set of idealized experiments are performed in an aquaplanet model to evaluate the coupling between the surface albedo feedback and other feedbacks, including the impact on atmospheric heat transport. In the tropics, the dynamical response manifests as changes in the intensity and structure of the overturning Hadley circulation. Only half of the range of Hadley cell weakening exhibited in these experiments is found to be attributable to imposed, systematic variations in the surface albedo feedback. Changes in extratropical clouds that accompany the albedo changes explain the remaining spread. The feedback-driven circulation changes are compensated by eddy energy flux changes, which reduce the overall spread among experiments. These findings have implications for the efficiency with which the climate system, including tropical circulation and the hydrological cycle, adjusts to high-latitude feedbacks over climate states that range from perennial or seasonal ice to ice-free conditions in the Arctic.

scholarly journals Decadal changes of wintertime poleward heat and moisture transport associated with the amplified Arctic warming

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaozhuo Sang ◽  
Xiu-Qun Yang ◽  
Lingfeng Tao ◽  
Jiabei Fang ◽  
Xuguang Sun
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transport ◽  
Moisture Transport ◽  
Stationary Wave ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stationary Waves ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Arctic Warming ◽  
Poleward Heat Transport ◽  
Heat And Moisture ◽  
Moisture Transports

Abstract The Arctic warming, especially during winter, has been almost twice as large as the global average since the late 1990s, which is known as the Arctic amplification. Yet linkage between the amplified Arctic warming and the midlatitude change is still under debate. This study examines the decadal changes of wintertime poleward heat and moisture transports between two 18-yr epochs (1999–2016 and 1981–1998) with five atmospheric reanalyses. It is found that the wintertime Arctic warming induces an amplification of the high latitude stationary wave component of zonal wavenumber one but a weakening of the wavenumber two. These stationary wave changes enhance poleward heat and moisture transports, which are conducive to further Arctic warming and moistening, acting as a positive feedback onto the Arctic warming. Meanwhile, the Arctic warming reduces atmospheric baroclinicity and thus weakens synoptic eddy activities in the high latitudes. The decreased transient eddy activities reduce poleward heat and moisture transports, which decrease the Arctic temperature and moisture, acting as a negative feedback onto the Arctic warming. The total poleward heat transport contributes little to the Arctic warming, since the increased poleward heat transport by stationary waves is nearly canceled by the decreased transport by transient eddies. However, the total poleward moisture transport increases over most areas of the high latitudes that is dominated by the increased transport by stationary waves, which provides a significant net positive feedback onto the Arctic warming and moistening. Such a poleward moisture transport feedback may be particularly crucial to the amplified Arctic warming during winter when the ice-albedo feedback vanishes.

scholarly journals The polar amplification asymmetry: role of Antarctic surface height

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 323-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Salzmann
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transport ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Reliable Estimate ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Albedo Feedback ◽  
Polar Amplification ◽  
Radiative Feedbacks ◽  
Model Setup

Abstract. Previous studies have attributed an overall weaker (or slower) polar amplification in Antarctica compared to the Arctic to a weaker Antarctic surface albedo feedback and also to more efficient ocean heat uptake in the Southern Ocean in combination with Antarctic ozone depletion. Here, the role of the Antarctic surface height for meridional heat transport and local radiative feedbacks, including the surface albedo feedback, was investigated based on CO2-doubling experiments in a low-resolution coupled climate model. When Antarctica was assumed to be flat, the north–south asymmetry of the zonal mean top of the atmosphere radiation budget was notably reduced. Doubling CO2 in a flat Antarctica (flat AA) model setup led to a stronger increase in southern hemispheric poleward atmospheric and oceanic heat transport compared to the base model setup. Based on partial radiative perturbation (PRP) computations, it was shown that local radiative feedbacks and an increase in the CO2 forcing in the deeper atmospheric column also contributed to stronger Antarctic warming in the flat AA model setup, and the roles of the individual radiative feedbacks are discussed in some detail. A considerable fraction (between 24 and 80 % for three consecutive 25-year time slices starting in year 51 and ending in year 126 after CO2 doubling) of the polar amplification asymmetry was explained by the difference in surface height, but the fraction was subject to transient changes and might to some extent also depend on model uncertainties. In order to arrive at a more reliable estimate of the role of land height for the observed polar amplification asymmetry, additional studies based on ensemble runs from higher-resolution models and an improved model setup with a more realistic gradual increase in the CO2 concentration are required.

A multimodel investigation of atmospheric mechanisms for driving Arctic amplification in warmer climates

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-55
Author(s):  
Deepashree Dutta ◽  
Steven C. Sherwood ◽  
Katrin J. Meissner ◽  
Alex Sen Gupta ◽  
Daniel J. Lunt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transport ◽  
General Circulation ◽  
Energy Transport ◽  
Longwave Radiation ◽  
General Circulation Models ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Arctic Warming ◽  
Surface Warming ◽  
Poleward Heat Transport ◽  
Warm Climates

AbstractWhen simulating past warm climates, such as the early Cretaceous and Paleogene periods, general circulation models (GCMs) underestimate the magnitude of warming in the Arctic. Additionally, model intercomparisons show a large spread in the magnitude of Arctic warming for these warmer-than-modern climates. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain these disagreements, including the unrealistic representation of polar clouds or underestimated poleward heat transport in the models. This study provides an intercomparison of Arctic cloud and atmospheric heat transport (AHT) responses to strong imposed polar-amplified surface ocean warming across four atmosphere-only GCMs. All models simulate an increase in high clouds throughout the year; the resulting reduction in longwave radiation loss to space acts to support the imposed Arctic warming. The response of low and mid-level clouds varies considerably across the models, with models responding differently to surface warming and sea ice removal. The AHT is consistently weaker in the imposed warming experiments due to a large reduction in dry static energy transport that offsets a smaller increase in latent heat transport, thereby opposing the imposed surface warming. Our idealised polar amplification experiments require very large increases in implied ocean heat transport (OHT) to maintain steady state. Increased CO2 or tropical temperatures that likely characterised past warm climates, reduces the need for such large OHT increases.

scholarly journals The polar amplification asymmetry: Role of antarctic surface height

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Salzmann
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transport ◽  
Surface Albedo ◽  
Radiation Budget ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Ocean Heat Uptake ◽  
Albedo Feedback ◽  
Polar Amplification ◽  
Radiative Feedbacks ◽  
Model Setup

Abstract. Previous studies have attributed an overall weaker (or slower) polar amplification in Antarctica compared to the Arctic to a weaker antarctic surface albedo feedback and also to more efficient ocean heat uptake in the Southern Ocean in combination with antarctic ozone depletion. Here, the role of the antarctic surface height for meridional heat transport and local radiative feedbacks including the surface albedo feedback was investigated based on CO2 doubling experiments in a low resolution coupled climate model. If Antarctica was assumed to be flat, the north-south asymmetry of the zonal mean top of the atmosphere radiation budget was significantly reduced. Doubling CO2 in a flat Antarctica ("flat AA") model setup led to a stronger increase of southern hemispheric poleward atmospheric and oceanic heat transport compared to the base model setup. Based on partial radiative perturbation (PRP) computations it was shown that local radiative feedbacks and an increase of the CO2 forcing in the deeper atmospheric column also contributed to stronger antarctic warming in the flat AA model setup, and the roles of the individual radiative feedbacks are discussed in some detail. A significant fraction (between 24 and 80 % for three consecutive 25-year time slices starting in year 51 and ending in year 126 after CO2 doubling) of the polar amplification asymmetry was explained by the difference in surface height, but the fraction was subject to transient changes, and might to some extent also depend on model uncertainties.

scholarly journals Using Bayesian Networks to investigate the influence of subseasonal Arctic variability on midlatitude North Atlantic circulation

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
Nathanael Harwood ◽  
Richard Hall ◽  
Giorgia Di Capua ◽  
Andrew Russell ◽  
Allan Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Bayesian Networks ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Hidden Variables ◽  
Polar Vortex ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Stratospheric Polar Vortex ◽  
Arctic Warming ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Atlantic

AbstractRecent enhanced warming and sea ice depletion in the Arctic have been put forward as potential drivers of severe weather in the midlatitudes. Evidence of a link between Arctic warming and midlatitude atmospheric circulation is growing, but the role of Arctic processes relative to other drivers remains unknown. Arctic-midlatitude connections in the North Atlantic region are particularly complex but important due to the frequent occurrence of severe winters in recent decades. Here, Dynamic Bayesian Networks with hidden variables are introduced to the field to assess their suitability for teleconnection analyses. Climate networks are constructed to analyse North Atlantic circulation variability at 5-day to monthly timescales during the winter months of the years 1981-2018. The inclusion of a number of Arctic, midlatitude and tropical variables allows for an investigation into the relative role of Arctic influence compared to internal atmospheric variability and other remote drivers.A robust covariability between regions of amplified Arctic warming and two definitions of midlatitude circulation is found to occur entirely within winter at submonthly timescales. Hidden variables incorporated in networks represent two distinct modes of stratospheric polar vortex variability, capturing a periodic shift between average conditions and slower anomalous flow. The influence of the Barents-Kara Seas region on the North Atlantic Oscillation is found to be the strongest link at 5- and 10-day averages, whilst the stratospheric polar vortex strongly influences jet variability on monthly timescales.

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