Abstract
The radiative impacts of the stratosphere in global warming simulations are investigated using abrupt CO2 quadrupling experiments of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5), with a focus on stratospheric temperature and water vapor. It is found that the stratospheric temperature change has a robust bullhorn-like zonal-mean pattern due to a strengthening of the stratospheric overturning circulation. This temperature change modifies the zonal mean top-of-the-atmosphere energy balance, but the compensation of the regional effects leads to an insignificant global-mean radiative feedback (−0.02 ± 0.04 W m−2 K−1). The stratospheric water vapor concentration generally increases, which leads to a weak positive global-mean radiative feedback (0.02 ± 0.01 W m−2 K−1). The stratospheric moistening is related to mixing of elevated upper-tropospheric humidity, and, to a lesser extent, to change in tropical tropopause temperature. Our results indicate that the strength of the stratospheric water vapor feedback is noticeably larger in high-top models than in low-top ones. The results here indicate that although its radiative impact as a forcing adjustment is significant, the stratosphere makes a minor contribution to the overall climate feedback in CMIP5 models.
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Acknowledgments
We thank three anonymous reviewers whose comments helped improve the quality of the paper. Y. Huang and M.Z. are supported by a Discovery grant form the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (RGPIN418305-13). Y.X. is supported by a postdoctoral fellowship of Fonds de recherché du Québec-Nature et technologies. Y.X. and Y. Hu are supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41025018) and by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2010CB428606). S.W.S. is supported by Korea Ministry of Environment as “Climate Change Correspondence Program”. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling for the CMIP5 model data used in this study.
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Huang, Y., Zhang, M., Xia, Y. et al. Is there a stratospheric radiative feedback in global warming simulations?. Clim Dyn 46, 177–186 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2577-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-015-2577-2