Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Dynamical greenhouse-plus feedback and polar warming amplification. Part I: A dry radiative-transportive climate model

  • Published:
Climate Dynamics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this paper, we use a dry radiative-transportive climate model to illustrate that the atmospheric poleward heat transport plays an important role in amplifying the polar surface warming due to anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Because of a much warmer surface in tropics, the anthropogenic radiative forcing is larger in tropics than in extratropics for same amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. A direct response to the anthropogenic radiative forcing is an increase in the atmosphere equator-to-pole temperature contrast, leading to a strengthening of the atmospheric poleward heat transport. As a result, part of the extra amount of energy intercepted by the low-latitude atmosphere due to an increase in its opacity is transported to high latitudes. This implies a “greenhouse-plus” (“greenhouse-minus”) feedback to the high (low) latitude surface temperatures, which acts to amplify (reduce) the initial surface warming in high (low) latitudes and may cause a larger surface warming in high latitudes. The Stefan–Boltzmann feedback suppresses the negative dynamical feedback in low latitudes more strongly than the positive in high latitudes, amplifying the global mean surface temperature warming. Because of the oceanic poleward heat transport, the ocean surface temperature in extratropics is warmer in winter compared to the land, implying a larger radiative forcing for the same amount of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. The same dynamical feedback mechanism would also amplify the land surface warming in extratropics by transporting part of the extra amount of energy intercepted by the atmosphere over the ocean surface to land. This explains partly why the observed land surface warming in extratropics is stronger than the surrounding oceans in winter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. One could use a more generic parameterization for D, \( D = \mu _{{\text{A}}} (A_{1} - A_{2} ){\left| {\frac{{A_{1} - A_{2} }} {{A_{1} + A_{2} }}} \right|}^{n} , \) where the non-dimensional parameter “n” measures the nonlinearity of the dynamic mixing. The scaling analysis suggests that meridional heat flux of baroclinic eddies is proportional to the square of the meridional temperature gradient (Held 1978a), which corresponds to n=1. Obviously, a different value of n would correspond to a different value of μ A for the same amount of the poleward heat transport, D. However, according to (2), the different values of n and μ A are not very relevant to the coupled radiative transportive model as long as they yield the same value of D. We have confirmed that for the same value of D, different values of n (n=0, 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 have been tested) essentially produce the same results. Therefore, it suffices that we only report the results obtained with n=0 in this paper.

  2. It should be pointed out that all of the results shown in figures are obtained by solving Eqs. 5and 6 numerically without linearizing the equations.

  3. Because all of the curves of constant μA≠0 have to intersect with the “curve of ε=0” (which actually is a point in the O–T diagram corresponding to the case of “no atmosphere” as far as the radiation is concerned), the slope of curves of constant μA is always smaller than those of constant emissivity. It follows that it suffices to just consider the polarity of the slope of curves of constant μA here.

References

  • Alexeev VA (2003) Sensitivity to CO2 doubling of an atmospheric GCM coupled to an oceanic mixed layer: a linear analysis. Clim Dyn 20:775–787

    Google Scholar 

  • Alexeev VA, Langen PL, Bates JR (2005) Polar amplification of surface warming on an aquaplanet in “ghost forcing” experiments without sea ice feedbacks. Clim Dyn 24:655–666

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bates JB (1999) A dynamical stabilizer in the climate system: a mechanism suggested by a simple model. Tellus 51A:349–372

    Google Scholar 

  • Boer GJ, Flato G, Reader NC, Ramsden D (2000) A transient climate change simulation with greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing. Clim Dyn 16:405–426

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Budyko MI (1969) The effect of solar radiation variation on the climate of the earth. Tellus 21:611–619

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Budyko MI, Izrael YA (1991) Anthropogenic climate change. The University of Arizona Press, pp 279–318

  • Comiso JC, Parkinson CL (2004) Satellite-observed changes in the Arctic. Phys Today 57:38–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hall A (2004) The role of surface albedo feedback in climate. J Clim 17:1550–1568

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen J, Ruedy R, Lacis A, Sato M, Nazarenko L, Tausnev N, Tegen I, Koch D (2000) Climate modelling in the global warming debate. In: Randall (ed) General circulation modeling: past, present and future. Academic, New York, pp 127–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen J, Ruedy R, Sato M, Imhoff M, Lawrence W, Easterling D, Peterson T, Karr T (2001) A close look at United States and global surface air temperature changes. J. Geophys Res 106:23947–23963

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartmann DL (1994) Global physical climatology. Academic, New York, pp 231–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassol SJ (2004) Impacts of a warming Arctic: Arctic climate impact assessment. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 146 pp

  • Held IM (1978a) The vertical scale of an unstable baroclinic wave and its importance for eddy heat flux parameterization. J Atmos Sci 35:572–576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Held IM (1978b) The tropospheric lapse rate and climate sensitivity: experiments with a two-level atmospheric model. J Atmos Sci 35:2083–2098

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Held IM (1993) Large-scale dynamics and global warming. Bull Am Meteor Soc 74:228–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houghton JT et al (2001) Climate change 2001: the scientific basis. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 101–181

  • Jones PD, New M, Parker DE, Martin S, Rigor IG (1999) Surface air temperature and its changes over the past 150 years. Rev Geophys 37:173–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krabill W et al (2000) Greenland ice sheet: high-elevation balance and peripheral thinning. Science 289:428–430

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindzen RS (1990) Dynamics in atmospheric physics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 4–15

  • Manabe S (1983) Carbon dioxide and climate change. In: Saltzman B (ed) Theory of climate. Adv Geophys 25:39–80

  • Meehl GL, Washington WM, Arblaster JM, Bettge TW, Strand WG (2000) Anthropogenic forcing and decadal climate variability in sensitivity experiments of twentieth- and twenty-first century climate. J Clim 13:3728–3744

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meehl GL, Washington WM, Ammann CM, Arblaster JM, Wigley TML, Tebaldi C (2004) Combinations of natural and anthropogenic forcings in twentieth-century climate. J Climate 17:3721–3727

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JFB, Johns TC, Gregory JM, Tett SFB (1995) Climate response to increasing levels of greenhouse gases and sulphate aerosols. Nature 376:501–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North GR (1975) Theory of energy-balance climate models. J Atmos Sci 32:2033–2043

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ohring G, Gruber A (1983) Satellite radiation observation and climate theory. In: Saltzman B (ed) Theory of climate. Adv Geophys 25:237–304

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider EK, Lindzen RL, Kirtman BP (1997) A tropical influence on global climate. J Atmos Sci 54:1349–1358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sellers WD (1969) A climate model based on the energy balance of the earth-atmosphere system. J Appl Meteor 8:392–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vinnikov KY et al. (1999) Global warming and Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent. Science 286:1934–1937

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wingham DJ, Ridout AJ, Scharroo R, Arthern RJ, Shum CK (1998) Antarctic elevation change from 1992 to 1996. Science 282:456–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zwally HJ, Abdalati W, Herring T, Larson K, Saba J, Steffen K (2002) Surface melt-induced acceleration of Greenland ice-sheet flow. Science 297:218–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to Huug M. van den Dool for his insightful comments and the suggestion of naming the model as a “radiative-transportive model”. The author is grateful to Eugenia Kalnay, F-F Jin, and Antonio Busalacchi for beneficial discussions and constructive suggestions. The insightful and constructive comments and suggestions from Jerry North and an anonymous reviewer, and the editor Ed Schneider are greatly appreciated. The author also thanks Minfeng Zhang for his assistance in plotting the numerical results and Shan Sun at GISS/NASA for her assistant in evaluating the GISS/NASA coupled model climate simulation output. This work was supported by an NSF grant ATM ATM-0403211.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Meteorology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA

    Ming Cai

Authors
  1. Ming Cai
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ming Cai.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cai, M. Dynamical greenhouse-plus feedback and polar warming amplification. Part I: A dry radiative-transportive climate model. Clim Dyn 26, 661–675 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-005-0104-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-005-0104-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation