Search Results
Abstract
Long-term changes in land–atmosphere interactions during spring and summer are examined over North America. A suite of models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project simulating preindustrial, historical, and severe future climate change scenarios are examined for changes in soil moisture, surface fluxes, atmospheric boundary layer characteristics, and metrics of land–atmosphere coupling.
Simulations of changes from preindustrial to modern conditions show warming brings stronger surface fluxes at high latitudes, while subtropical regions of North America respond with drier conditions. There is a clear anthropogenic aerosol response in midlatitudes that reduces surface radiation and heat fluxes, leading to shallower boundary layers and lower cloud base. Over the Great Plains, the signal does not reflect a purely radiatively forced response, showing evidence that the expansion of agriculture may have offset the aerosol impacts on the surface energy and water cycle.
Future changes show soils are projected to dry across North America, even though precipitation increases north of a line that retreats poleward from spring to summer. Latent heat flux also has a north–south dipole of change, increasing north and decreasing south of a line that also moves northward with the changing season. Metrics of land–atmosphere feedback increase over most of the continent but are strongest where latent heat flux increases in the same location and season where precipitation decreases. Combined with broadly elevated cloud bases and deeper boundary layers, land–atmosphere interactions are projected to become more important in the future with possible consequences for seasonal climate prediction.
Abstract
Long-term changes in land–atmosphere interactions during spring and summer are examined over North America. A suite of models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project simulating preindustrial, historical, and severe future climate change scenarios are examined for changes in soil moisture, surface fluxes, atmospheric boundary layer characteristics, and metrics of land–atmosphere coupling.
Simulations of changes from preindustrial to modern conditions show warming brings stronger surface fluxes at high latitudes, while subtropical regions of North America respond with drier conditions. There is a clear anthropogenic aerosol response in midlatitudes that reduces surface radiation and heat fluxes, leading to shallower boundary layers and lower cloud base. Over the Great Plains, the signal does not reflect a purely radiatively forced response, showing evidence that the expansion of agriculture may have offset the aerosol impacts on the surface energy and water cycle.
Future changes show soils are projected to dry across North America, even though precipitation increases north of a line that retreats poleward from spring to summer. Latent heat flux also has a north–south dipole of change, increasing north and decreasing south of a line that also moves northward with the changing season. Metrics of land–atmosphere feedback increase over most of the continent but are strongest where latent heat flux increases in the same location and season where precipitation decreases. Combined with broadly elevated cloud bases and deeper boundary layers, land–atmosphere interactions are projected to become more important in the future with possible consequences for seasonal climate prediction.
Abstract
The ability of phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) climate models to simulate the twentieth-century “warming hole” over North America is explored, along with the warming hole’s relationship with natural climate variability. Twenty-first-century warming hole projections are also examined for two future emission scenarios, the 8.5 and 4.5 W m−2 representative concentration pathways (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). Simulations from 22 CMIP5 climate models were analyzed, including all their ensemble members, for a total of 192 climate realizations. A nonparametric trend detection method was employed, and an alternative perspective emphasizing trend variability. Observations show multidecadal variability in the sign and magnitude of the trend, where the twentieth-century temperature trend over the eastern United States appears to be associated with low-frequency (multidecadal) variability in the North Atlantic temperatures. Most CMIP5 climate models simulate significantly lower “relative power” in the North Atlantic multidecadal oscillations than observed. Models that have relatively higher skill in simulating the North Atlantic multidecadal oscillation also are more likely to reproduce the warming hole. It was also found that the trend variability envelope simulated by multiple CMIP5 climate models brackets the observed warming hole. Based on the multimodel analysis, it is found that in the twenty-first-century climate simulations the presence or absence of the warming hole depends on future emission scenarios; the RCP8.5 scenario indicates a disappearance of the warming hole, whereas the RCP4.5 scenario shows some chance (10%–20%) of the warming hole’s reappearance in the latter half of the twenty-first century, consistent with CO2 stabilization.
Abstract
The ability of phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) climate models to simulate the twentieth-century “warming hole” over North America is explored, along with the warming hole’s relationship with natural climate variability. Twenty-first-century warming hole projections are also examined for two future emission scenarios, the 8.5 and 4.5 W m−2 representative concentration pathways (RCP8.5 and RCP4.5). Simulations from 22 CMIP5 climate models were analyzed, including all their ensemble members, for a total of 192 climate realizations. A nonparametric trend detection method was employed, and an alternative perspective emphasizing trend variability. Observations show multidecadal variability in the sign and magnitude of the trend, where the twentieth-century temperature trend over the eastern United States appears to be associated with low-frequency (multidecadal) variability in the North Atlantic temperatures. Most CMIP5 climate models simulate significantly lower “relative power” in the North Atlantic multidecadal oscillations than observed. Models that have relatively higher skill in simulating the North Atlantic multidecadal oscillation also are more likely to reproduce the warming hole. It was also found that the trend variability envelope simulated by multiple CMIP5 climate models brackets the observed warming hole. Based on the multimodel analysis, it is found that in the twenty-first-century climate simulations the presence or absence of the warming hole depends on future emission scenarios; the RCP8.5 scenario indicates a disappearance of the warming hole, whereas the RCP4.5 scenario shows some chance (10%–20%) of the warming hole’s reappearance in the latter half of the twenty-first century, consistent with CO2 stabilization.
