Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks
Recent studies show that fast climate response on time scales of less than a month can have important implications for long-term climate change. In this study, we investigate climate response on the time scale of days to weeks to a step-function quadrupling of atmospheric CO _2 and contrast this wit...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2012-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/3/034015 |
| _version_ | 1797748496673013760 |
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| author | Long Cao Govindasamy Bala Ken Caldeira |
| author_facet | Long Cao Govindasamy Bala Ken Caldeira |
| author_sort | Long Cao |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent studies show that fast climate response on time scales of less than a month can have important implications for long-term climate change. In this study, we investigate climate response on the time scale of days to weeks to a step-function quadrupling of atmospheric CO _2 and contrast this with the response to a 4% increase in solar irradiance. Our simulations show that significant climate effects occur within days of a stepwise increase in both atmospheric CO _2 content and solar irradiance. Over ocean, increased atmospheric CO _2 warms the lower troposphere more than the surface, increasing atmospheric stability, moistening the boundary layer, and suppressing evaporation and precipitation. In contrast, over ocean, increased solar irradiance warms the lower troposphere to a much lesser extent, causing a much smaller change in evaporation and precipitation. Over land, both increased CO _2 and increased solar irradiance cause rapid surface warming that tends to increase both evaporation and precipitation. However, the physiological effect of increased atmospheric CO _2 on plant stomata reduces plant transpiration, drying the boundary layer and decreasing precipitation. This effect does not occur with increased solar irradiance. Therefore, differences in climatic effects from CO _2 versus solar forcing are manifested within days after the forcing is imposed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:05:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7cff4cdf2a154da0ba262193c9d362ec |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T16:05:38Z |
| publishDate | 2012-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-7cff4cdf2a154da0ba262193c9d362ec2023-08-09T14:21:43ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262012-01-017303401510.1088/1748-9326/7/3/034015Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeksLong Cao0Govindasamy Bala1Ken Caldeira2Department of Earth Sciences, ZheJiang University , HangZhou, ZheJiang 310027, People’s Republic of ChinaDivecha Center for Climate Change and Center for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science , Bangalore 560012, IndiaDepartment of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution , Stanford, CA 94305, USARecent studies show that fast climate response on time scales of less than a month can have important implications for long-term climate change. In this study, we investigate climate response on the time scale of days to weeks to a step-function quadrupling of atmospheric CO _2 and contrast this with the response to a 4% increase in solar irradiance. Our simulations show that significant climate effects occur within days of a stepwise increase in both atmospheric CO _2 content and solar irradiance. Over ocean, increased atmospheric CO _2 warms the lower troposphere more than the surface, increasing atmospheric stability, moistening the boundary layer, and suppressing evaporation and precipitation. In contrast, over ocean, increased solar irradiance warms the lower troposphere to a much lesser extent, causing a much smaller change in evaporation and precipitation. Over land, both increased CO _2 and increased solar irradiance cause rapid surface warming that tends to increase both evaporation and precipitation. However, the physiological effect of increased atmospheric CO _2 on plant stomata reduces plant transpiration, drying the boundary layer and decreasing precipitation. This effect does not occur with increased solar irradiance. Therefore, differences in climatic effects from CO _2 versus solar forcing are manifested within days after the forcing is imposed.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/3/034015climate change and responseradiative forcingcarbon dioxidesolar forcingclimate modeling |
| spellingShingle | Long Cao Govindasamy Bala Ken Caldeira Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks Environmental Research Letters climate change and response radiative forcing carbon dioxide solar forcing climate modeling |
| title | Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks |
| title_full | Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks |
| title_fullStr | Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks |
| title_short | Climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks |
| title_sort | climate response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide and solar irradiance on the time scale of days to weeks |
| topic | climate change and response radiative forcing carbon dioxide solar forcing climate modeling |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/3/034015 |
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