Andrews, T, Forster, PM and Gregory, JM (2009) A surface energy perspective on climate change. Journal of Climate, 22 (10). 2557 - 2570 . ISSN 0894-8755
Abstract
A surface forcing response framework is developed that enables an understanding of time-dependent climate change from a surface energy perspective. The framework allows the separation of fast responses that are unassociated with global-mean surface air temperature change (Delta T), which is included in the forcing, and slow feedbacks that scale with Delta T. The framework is illustrated primarily using 2 x CO2 climate model experiments and is robust across the models. For CO2 increases, the positive downward radiative component of forcing is smaller at the surface than at the tropopause, and so a rapid reduction in the upward surface latent heat (LH) flux is induced to conserve the tropospheric heat budget; this reduces the precipitation rate. Analysis of the time-dependent surface energy balance over sea and land separately reveals that land areas rapidly regain energy balance, and significant land surface warming occurs before global sea temperatures respond. The 2 x CO2 results are compared to a solar increase experiment and show that some fast responses are forcing dependent. In particular, a significant forcing from the fast hydrological response found in the CO2 experiments is much smaller in the solar experiment. The different fast response explains why previous equilibrium studies found differences in the hydrological sensitivity between these two forcings. On longer time scales, as Delta T increases, the net surface longwave and LH fluxes provide positive and negative surface feedbacks, respectively, while the net surface shortwave and sensible heat fluxes change little. It is found that in contrast to their fast responses, the longer-term response of both surface energy fluxes and the global hydrological cycle are similar for the different forcing agents.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2009 American Meteorological Society. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | hydrological cycle, CO2, model, sensitivity, atmosphere, mechanisms, impact |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2011 10:24 |
Last Modified: | 25 Oct 2016 02:50 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2759.1 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Meteorological Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1175/2008JCLI2759.1 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:43311 |