scholarly journals Ocean–atmosphere interactions modulate irrigation's climate impacts

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 863-876 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Y. Krakauer ◽  
Michael J. Puma ◽  
Benjamin I. Cook ◽  
Pierre Gentine ◽  
Larissa Nazarenko

Abstract. Numerous studies have focused on the local and regional climate effects of irrigated agriculture and other land cover and land use change (LCLUC) phenomena, but there are few studies on the role of ocean–atmosphere interaction in modulating irrigation climate impacts. Here, we compare simulations with and without interactive sea surface temperatures of the equilibrium effect on climate of contemporary (year 2000) irrigation geographic extent and intensity. We find that ocean–atmosphere interaction does impact the magnitude of global-mean and spatially varying climate impacts, greatly increasing their global reach. Local climate effects in the irrigated regions remain broadly similar, while non-local effects, particularly over the oceans, tend to be larger. The interaction amplifies irrigation-driven standing wave patterns in the tropics and midlatitudes in our simulations, approximately doubling the global-mean amplitude of surface temperature changes due to irrigation. The fractions of global area experiencing significant annual-mean surface air temperature and precipitation change also approximately double with ocean–atmosphere interaction. Subject to confirmation with other models, these findings imply that LCLUC is an important contributor to climate change even in remote areas such as the Southern Ocean, and that attribution studies should include interactive oceans and need to consider LCLUC, including irrigation, as a truly global forcing that affects climate and the water cycle over ocean as well as land areas.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Y. Krakauer ◽  
Michael J. Puma ◽  
Benjamin I. Cook ◽  
Pierre Gentine ◽  
Larissa Nazarenko

Abstract. Numerous studies have focused on the local and regional climate effects of irrigated agriculture and other land cover and land use change (LCLUC) phenomena, but there are few studies on the role of ocean-atmosphere interaction in modulating irrigation climate impacts. Here, we compare simulations of the equilibrium effect of contemporary irrigation geographic extent and intensity on climate with and without interactive sea surface temperatures. We find that ocean-atmosphere interaction does impact the magnitude of global-mean and spatially varying climate impacts, greatly increasing their global reach. The interaction amplifies irrigation-driven standing wave patterns in the tropics and midlatitudes in our simulations, approximately doubling the global mean amplitude of surface temperature changes due to irrigation. Subject to confirmation with other models, these findings imply that LCLUC is an important contributor to climate change even in remote areas such as the Southern Ocean. Attribution studies should include interactive oceans and need to consider LCLUC, including irrigation, as a truly global forcing that affects climate and the water cycle over ocean as well as land areas.


Author(s):  
Rowan Sutton ◽  
Emma Suckling ◽  
Ed Hawkins

The subject of climate feedbacks focuses attention on global mean surface air temperature (GMST) as the key metric of climate change. But what does knowledge of past and future GMST tell us about the climate of specific regions? In the context of the ongoing UNFCCC process, this is an important question for policy-makers as well as for scientists. The answer depends on many factors, including the mechanisms causing changes, the timescale of the changes, and the variables and regions of interest. This paper provides a review and analysis of the relationship between changes in GMST and changes in local climate, first in observational records and then in a range of climate model simulations, which are used to interpret the observations. The focus is on decadal timescales, which are of particular interest in relation to recent and near-future anthropogenic climate change. It is shown that GMST primarily provides information about forced responses, but that understanding and quantifying internal variability is essential to projecting climate and climate impacts on regional-to-local scales. The relationship between local forced responses and GMST is often linear but may be nonlinear, and can be greatly complicated by competition between different forcing factors. Climate projections are limited not only by uncertainties in the signal of climate change but also by uncertainties in the characteristics of real-world internal variability. Finally, it is shown that the relationship between GMST and local climate provides a simple approach to climate change detection, and a useful guide to attribution studies.


Oceanography ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 52-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dudley Chelton ◽  
Shang-Ping Xie

1979 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
K. YA Roundratyev ◽  
YU. I. Rabinovich ◽  
F. M. Shulgina

En la formación del clima intervienen una serie de procesosos muy complejos que interaccionan en el sistema "atmósfera-océano-continentes-criósfera". el problema de clima y sus cambios originados naturalmente y por factores antropogénicos exige el seguimiento de un amplio conjunto de parámetros que caractericen no sólo al clima sino los rasgos propios de la atmósfera, océano, superficie terrestre y cubierta de hielo.La determinación del conjunto de parámetros requerido debe obtenerse a partir del modelado numérico dirigido a la planeación del sistema global para monitoreo del clima. Las restricciones sobre los datos observacionales son muy variables y fuertemente dependientes del modelo del clima utilizado. en base a estas consideraciones se presenta una estimación de los parámetros requeridos que integran el conjunto, se incluye precisión y resolución espacio-temporal. Se analizan las posibilidades de medición por los sistemas actuales, los ya diseñados y lo que se desarrollarán en los años ochentas. Finalmente, se evalúan los errores que se cometen utilizando microondas en la determinación de la temperatura de la cubierta de hielo y de la superficie del mar.


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