scholarly journals Are the Transient and Equilibrium Climate Change Patterns Similar in Response to Increased CO2?

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (18) ◽  
pp. 8003-8023
Author(s):  
Danqing Huang ◽  
Aiguo Dai ◽  
Jian Zhu

AbstractAfter a CO2 increase, whether the early transient and final equilibrium climate change patterns are similar has major implications. Here, we analyze long-term simulations from multiple climate models under increased CO2, together with the extended simulations from CMIP5, to compare the transient and equilibrium climate change patterns under different forcing scenarios. Results show that the normalized warming patterns (per 1 K of global warming) are broadly similar among different forcing scenarios (including abrupt 2 × CO2, 4 × CO2, and 1% CO2 increase per year) and during different time periods, except for the first 50 years or so when warming is weaker over the North Atlantic and Southern Ocean but stronger over most continents. During the first 200 years, this consistency is stronger over land than over ocean, but is lower in midlatitudes than other regions. Normalized precipitation change patterns are also similar, albeit to a lesser degree, among different forcing scenarios and across different time periods, although noticeable differences exist during the first few hundred years with smaller increases over the tropical Pacific. Precipitation over many subtropical oceans and land areas decreases consistently under different forcing scenarios and over all time periods. In particular, the transient and near-equilibrium change patterns for both surface air temperature and precipitation are similar over most of the globe, except for the North Atlantic warming hole, which is mainly a transient feature. The Arctic amplification and land–ocean warming contrast are largest during the first 100–200 years after CO2 quadrupling but they still exist in the equilibrium response.

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 1885-1914
Author(s):  
D. Xiao ◽  
P. Zhao ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
X. Zhou

Abstract. Using an intermediate-complexity UVic Earth System Climate Model (UVic Model), the geographical and seasonal implications and an indicative sense of the historical climate found in the δ18O record of the Guliya ice core (hereinafter, the Guliya δ18O) are investigated under time-dependent orbital forcing with an acceleration factor of 100 over the past 130 ka. The results reveal that the simulated late-summer (August–September) Guliya surface air temperature (SAT) reproduces the 23-ka precession and 43-ka obliquity cycles in the Guliya δ18O. Furthermore, the Guliya δ18O is significantly correlated with the SAT over the Northern Hemisphere (NH), which suggests the Guliya δ18O is an indicator of the late-summer SAT in the NH. Corresponding to the warm and cold phases of the precession cycle in the Guliya temperature, there are two anomalous patterns in the SAT and sea surface temperature (SST) fields. The first anomalous pattern shows an increase in the SAT (SST) toward the Arctic, possibly associated with the joint effect of the precession and obliquity cycles, and the second anomalous pattern shows an increase in the SAT (SST) toward the equator, possibly due to the influence of the precession cycle. Additionally, the summer (winter) Guliya and NH temperatures are higher (lower) in the warm phases of Guliya late-summer SAT than in the cold phases. Furthermore, the Guliya SAT is closely related to the North Atlantic SST, in which the Guliya precipitation may act as a "bridge" linking the Guliya SAT and the North Atlantic SST.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mareike Schuster ◽  
Uwe Ulbrich

<p>Windstorms are considered the most devastating natural peril in many regions around the globe. For insurance associations in Europe for example, the damages generated by windstorms make up to about 90% of the claims in the category of natural hazards. The interannual variability of windstorms can be quite strong and thus research has recently focused on this topic.</p><p>However, storm risk and its changes under anthropogenically induced climate change are so far rather little discussed in literature. Thus, there are still large uncertainties about how climate change will affect the extratropical circulation. CMIP5 models showed at times opposing signals regarding number and strength of windstorm generating cyclones and storm tracks. In more detail, the latest IPCC AR5 states that substantial uncertainty and low confidence remains in projecting changes in NH storm tracks, especially for the North Atlantic basin.</p><p>With the lately released CMIP6 simulations, providing model output of increased spatial and temporal resolution, there is potential for new insights and enhanced confidence regarding future trends of storminess.</p><p>In our study, we assess characteristics and trends of windstorm diagnostics in an ensemble of the latest CMIP6 climate scenario simulations, with a focus to the North Atlantic basin and winterstorms affecting Europe.</p><p>In the CMIP6 model ensemble the trends of winter windstorm frequencies appear to be overall weaker in an anthropogenically changed climate than in the preceding CMIP5 scenarios; yet, first results indicate that they are somewhat more consistent amongst models. All CMIP6 models exhibit a windstorm frequency increase locally confined over the Arctic, while in the mid and high latitudes a wide-ranging decrease of windstorm activity is simulated. In our study we will also assess what this entails for characteristics like life time, intensity and size.</p>


2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 1327-1337 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth F. Drinkwater

Abstract Future CO2-induced climate change scenarios from Global Circulation Models (GCMs) indicate increasing air temperatures, with the greatest warming in the Arctic and Subarctic. Changes to the wind fields and precipitation patterns are also suggested. These will lead to changes in the hydrographic properties of the ocean, as well as the vertical stratification and circulation patterns. Of particular note is the expected increase in ocean temperature. Based upon the observed responses of cod to temperature variability, the expected responses of cod stocks throughout the North Atlantic to the future temperature scenarios are reviewed and discussed here. Stocks in the Celtic and Irish Seas are expected to disappear under predicted temperature changes by the year 2100, while those in the southern North Sea and Georges Bank will decline. Cod will likely spread northwards along the coasts of Greenland and Labrador, occupy larger areas of the Barents Sea, and may even extend onto some of the continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean. In addition, spawning sites will be established further north than currently. It is likely that spring migrations will occur earlier, and fall returns will be later. There is the distinct possibility that, where seasonal sea ice disappears altogether, cod will cease their migration. Individual growth rates for many of the cod stocks will increase, leading to an overall increase in the total production of Atlantic cod in the North Atlantic. These responses of cod to future climate changes are highly uncertain, however, as they will also depend on the changes to climate and oceanographic variables besides temperature, such as plankton production, the prey and predator fields, and industrial fishing.


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 510-512
Author(s):  
A. N. Novigatsky ◽  
S. V. Gladyshev ◽  
A. A. Klyuvitkin ◽  
N. V. Kozina ◽  
V. A. Artemyev ◽  
...  

The article briefly shows the results of the expedition, expanding Russia’s contribution to the international program CLIVAR (Climate Variability and Predictability), aimed at studying and predicting climate change. The geological part of the expedition is aimed at studying the sedimentary system of the North Atlantic and the Arctic. During the voyage, a unique material was received, requiring additional analysis and further publication.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzana Camargo ◽  
Chia-Ying Lee ◽  
Adam Sobel ◽  
Michael Tippett

<p>Here I will describe recent results on the influence of climate change on tropical cyclones (TC) using the Columbia Hazard (CHAZ) model. Using environmental conditions from reanalysis and climate models and a statistical-dynamical downscaling methodology (Lee et al. 2018), CHAZ generates synthetic TCs that can be used to analyze TC risk.  I will first discuss the current knowledge and uncertainties in TC frequency projections. Then I will present our recent projections on TC frequency using CHAZ. Focusing on the North Atlantic, I will finish by discussing how we can use a combination of observations, high-resolution models and CHAZ synthetic TCs in the historical period to inform the reliability of the models' TC frequency projections. </p><p>Reference:</p><p>Lee, C.-Y., M.K. Tippett, A.H. Sobel, and S.J. Camargo, 2018. An environmentally forced tropical cyclone hazard model. J. Adv. Model. Earth Sys., 10, doi: 10.1002/2017MS001186.</p>


Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Céline Heuzé ◽  
Marius Årthun

Oceanic heat transport from the North Atlantic to the Arctic through the Nordic Seas is a key component of the climate system that has to be modelled accurately in order to predict, for example, future Arctic sea ice changes or European climate. Here we quantify biases in the climatological state and dynamics of the transport of oceanic heat into the Nordic Seas across the Greenland-Scotland ridge in 23 state-of-the-art global climate models that participated in the Climate Model Intercomparison Project phase 5. The mean poleward heat transport, its seasonal cycle and interannual variability are inconsistently represented across these models, with a vast majority underestimating them and a few models greatly overestimating them. The main predictor for these biases is the resolution of the model via its representation of the Greenland-Scotland ridge bathymetry: the higher the resolution, the larger the heat transport through the section. The second predictor is the large-scale ocean circulation, which is also connected to the bathymetry: models with the largest heat transport import water from the European slope current into all three straits of the Greenland-Scotland ridge, whereas those with a weak transport import water from the Labrador Sea. The third predictor is the spatial pattern of their main atmospheric modes of variability (North Atlantic Oscillation, East Atlantic and Scandinavian patterns), where the models with a weak inflow have their atmospheric low-pressure centre shifted south towards the central Atlantic. We argue that the key to a better representation of the large-scale oceanic heat transport from the North Atlantic to the Arctic in global models resides not only in higher resolution, but also in a better bathymetry and representation of the complex ocean-ice-atmosphere interactions.


Author(s):  
Elzbieta M. Bitner-Gregersen

The present study investigates potential changes of wind and wave conditions in one North Atlantic location in the 21st century. The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses four scenarios for future greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere called Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP). Two of these scenarios with radiative forcing of 4.5 and 8.5 W/m2 by the end of the 21st century have been selected to project wind and wave conditions in the North Atlantic. The third generation (3G) wave model WAM, forced by winds obtained from GFDL-CM3, EC-Earth, HADGEM2, IPS-CM5A-MR, MRI-GCGCM3 and MIROC5 climate models, has been used to project waves for these two scenarios for the historical period 1971–2000 and the future period 2071–2100. Long-term probabilistic description of wind and waves is provided and deviations between the past and future wind and wave conditions are demonstrated, given attention to the projections obtained by use of the GFDL-CM3 and EC-Earth climate models. Changes in extreme wind and waves are shown and uncertainties associated with climate change projections discussed. Occurrence of rogue-prone crossing sea states which may trigger generation of rogue waves in the past and future climate is also investigated.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (41) ◽  
pp. e2108397118
Author(s):  
Wenchang Yang ◽  
Tsung-Lin Hsieh ◽  
Gabriel A. Vecchi

Understanding tropical cyclone (TC) climatology is a problem of profound societal significance and deep scientific interest. The annual cycle is the biggest radiatively forced signal in TC variability, presenting a key test of our understanding and modeling of TC activity. TCs over the North Atlantic (NA) basin, which are usually called hurricanes, have a sharp peak in the annual cycle, with more than half concentrated in only 3 mo (August to October), yet existing theories of TC genesis often predict a much smoother cycle. Here we apply a framework originally developed to study TC response to climate change in which TC genesis is determined by both the number of pre-TC synoptic disturbances (TC “seeds”) and the probability of TC genesis from the seeds. The combination of seeds and probability predicts a more consistent hurricane annual cycle, reproducing the compact season, as well as the abrupt increase from July to August in the NA across observations and climate models. The seeds-probability TC genesis framework also successfully captures TC annual cycles in different basins. The concise representation of the climate sensitivity of TCs from the annual cycle to climate change indicates that the framework captures the essential elements of the TC climate connection.


Author(s):  
Edward Hanna ◽  
Thomas E. Cropper

Many variations in the weather in the European and North Atlantic regions are linked with changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The NAO is measured using a south-minus-north index of atmospheric surface pressure variation across the North Atlantic and is closely connected with changes in the North Atlantic atmospheric polar jet stream and wider changes in atmospheric circulation. The physical, human, and biological impacts of NAO changes extend well beyond weather and climate, with major economic, social, and environmental effects. The NAO index based on barometric pressure records now extends as far back as 1850, based on recent work. Although there are few significant overall trends in monthly or seasonal NAO (i.e., for the whole record), there are many shorter-term multidecadal variations. A prominent increase in the NAO between the 1960s and 1990s was widely noted in previous work and was thought to be related to human-induced greenhouse gas forcing. However, since then this trend has reversed, with a significant decrease in the summer NAO since the 1990s and a striking increase in variability of the winter—especially December—NAO that has resulted in four of the six highest and two of the five lowest NAO Decembers occurring during 2004–2015 in the 116-year record, with accompanying more variable year-to-year winter weather conditions over the United Kingdom. These NAO changes are related to an increasing trend in the Greenland Blocking Index (GBI; equals high pressure over Greenland) in summer and a significantly more variable GBI in December. Such NAO and related jet stream and blocking changes are not generally present in the current generation of global climate models, although recent process studies offer insights into their possible causes. Several plausible climate forcings and feedbacks, including changes in the sun’s energy output and the Arctic amplification of global warming with accompanying reductions in sea ice, may help explain the recent NAO changes. Recent research also suggests significant skill in being able to make seasonal NAO predictions and therefore long-range weather forecasts for up to several months ahead for northwest Europe. However, global climate models remain unclear on longer-term NAO predictions for the remainder of the 21st century.


2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felix W. Landerer ◽  
Johann H. Jungclaus ◽  
Jochem Marotzke

Abstract This paper analyzes regional sea level changes in a climate change simulation using the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI) coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM. The climate change scenario builds on observed atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations from 1860 to 2000, followed by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) A1B climate change scenario until 2100; from 2100 to 2199, GHG concentrations are fixed at the 2100 level. As compared with the unperturbed control climate, global sea level rises 0.26 m by 2100, and 0.56 m by 2199 through steric expansion; eustatic changes are not included in this simulation. The model’s sea level evolves substantially differently among ocean basins. Sea level rise is strongest in the Arctic Ocean, from enhanced freshwater input from precipitation and continental runoff, and weakest in the Southern Ocean, because of compensation of steric changes through dynamic sea surface height (SSH) adjustments. In the North Atlantic Ocean (NA), a complex tripole SSH pattern across the subtropical to subpolar gyre front evolves, which is consistent with a northward shift of the NA current. On interannual to decadal time scales, the SSH difference between Bermuda and the Labrador Sea correlates highly with the combined baroclinic gyre transport in the NA but only weakly with the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) and, thus, does not allow for estimates of the MOC on these time scales. Bottom pressure increases over shelf areas by up to 0.45 m (water column equivalent) and decreases over the Atlantic section in the Southern Ocean by up to 0.20 m. The separate evaluation of thermosteric and halosteric sea level changes shows that thermosteric anomalies are positive over most of the World Ocean. Because of increased atmospheric moisture transport from low to high latitudes, halosteric anomalies are negative in the subtropical NA and partly compensate thermosteric anomalies, but are positive in the Arctic Ocean and add to thermosteric anomalies. The vertical distribution of thermosteric and halosteric anomalies is highly nonuniform among ocean basins, reaching deeper than 3000 m in the Southern Ocean, down to 2200 m in the North Atlantic, and only to depths of 500 m in the Pacific Ocean by the end of the twenty-first century.


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