Spatially similar surface energy flux perturbations due to greenhouse gases and aerosols

Details

• Journal Title:
  Nature Communications
• Personal Author:
  Persad, Geeta G. ; Ming, Yi ; Shen, Zhaoyi ; Ramaswamy, V.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; CICSP (Cooperative Institute for Climate Science) ; GFDL (Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)
• Description:
  Despite distinct geographic distributions of top-of-the-atmosphere radiative forcing, anthropogenic greenhouse gases and aerosols have been found to produce similar patterns of climate response in atmosphere-and-ocean coupled climate model simulations. Understanding surface energy flux changes, a crucial pathway by which atmospheric forcing is communicated to the ocean, is a vital bridge to explaining the similar full atmosphere-andocean responses to these disparate forcings. Here we analyze the fast, atmosphere-driven change in surface energy flux caused by present-day greenhouse gases vs aerosols to elucidate its role in shaping the subsequent slow, coupled response. We find that the surface energy flux response patterns achieve roughly two-thirds of the anti-correlation seen in the fully coupled response, driven by Rossby waves excited by symmetric changes to the land-sea contrast. Our results suggest that atmosphere and land surface processes are capable of achieving substantial within-hemisphere homogenization in the climate response to disparate forcers on fast, societally-relevant timescales.
• Source:
  Nature Communications, 9, 7.
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05735-y
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  Grant no. NA14OAR4320106
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:bce0284f430bb3d3a9bf8ec2389adb815f449a4b466fe6330a27112ecb8eef61
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/20552/noaa_20552_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.01 MB ]