Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models
Simulations of warming climates with coupled climate models exhibit strong land-ocean contrasts in changes in surface temperature and relative humidity, but little land-ocean contrast in changes in equivalent potential temperature. A theory that assumes equal changes in equivalent potential temperat...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85601 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1748-0816 |
| _version_ | 1826207680333611008 |
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| author | Byrne, Michael Patrick O'Gorman, Paul |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Byrne, Michael Patrick O'Gorman, Paul |
| author_sort | Byrne, Michael Patrick |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Simulations of warming climates with coupled climate models exhibit strong land-ocean contrasts in changes in surface temperature and relative humidity, but little land-ocean contrast in changes in equivalent potential temperature. A theory that assumes equal changes in equivalent potential temperature over land and ocean captures the simulated land-ocean warming contrast in the tropics if changes in relative humidity and ocean temperature are taken as given. According to the theory, land relative humidity changes and the land-ocean contrast in the control climate contribute equally to the tropical warming contrast, while ocean relative humidity changes make a smaller (but also positive) contribution. Intermodel scatter in the tropical warming contrast is primarily linked to land relative humidity changes. These results emphasize the need to better constrain land relative humidity changes in model simulations, and they are also relevant for changes in heat stress over land. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:53:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/85601 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:53:17Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/856012024-05-15T08:33:05Z Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models Byrne, Michael Patrick O'Gorman, Paul Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Byrne, Michael Patrick O'Gorman, Paul Ambrose Simulations of warming climates with coupled climate models exhibit strong land-ocean contrasts in changes in surface temperature and relative humidity, but little land-ocean contrast in changes in equivalent potential temperature. A theory that assumes equal changes in equivalent potential temperature over land and ocean captures the simulated land-ocean warming contrast in the tropics if changes in relative humidity and ocean temperature are taken as given. According to the theory, land relative humidity changes and the land-ocean contrast in the control climate contribute equally to the tropical warming contrast, while ocean relative humidity changes make a smaller (but also positive) contribution. Intermodel scatter in the tropical warming contrast is primarily linked to land relative humidity changes. These results emphasize the need to better constrain land relative humidity changes in model simulations, and they are also relevant for changes in heat stress over land. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AGS-1148594) 2014-03-10T20:31:28Z 2014-03-10T20:31:28Z 2013-10 2013-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 00948276 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85601 Byrne, Michael P., and Paul A. O’Gorman. “Link Between Land-Ocean Warming Contrast and Surface Relative Humidities in Simulations with Coupled Climate Models.” Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, no. 19 (October 16, 2013): 5223–5227. Copyright © 2013 American Geophysical Union https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1748-0816 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/grl.50971 Geophysical Research Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Byrne, Michael Patrick O'Gorman, Paul Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| title | Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| title_full | Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| title_fullStr | Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| title_full_unstemmed | Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| title_short | Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| title_sort | link between land ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85601 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1748-0816 |
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