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Changes in gross moist stability in the tropics under global warming

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Abstract

Gross moist stability, an effective static stability, in the tropics is examined in observations and model simulations. Under convective quasi-equilibrium closure, gross moist stability, a vertical integration of the vertical moist static energy gradient weighted by pressure velocity, is derived based on an approximately moist adiabatic process associated with deep convection. In climatology, gross moist stability is generally similar to the spatial distribution of mean precipitation. In global warming simulations, gross moist stability tends to increase in the tropics. It implies a more stable atmosphere, which is consistent with the weakening of tropical circulation found in climate models. Main effects, which induce the changes in gross moist stability, include the low-level moisture effect, the maximum level of convection (MLC) effect, i.e., the depth of deep convection, and the dry static energy effect associated with stratification of temperature, with the first two also found in climatology. Because of the strong cancellation between the effects of low-level moisture and dry static energy due to the moist adiabatic process of deep convection, the effect of MLC, which has been overlooked in measuring atmospheric stability, is crucial in determining the sign of changes in gross moist stability. Gross moist stability is a better index to represent changes in atmospheric stability in the tropics under global warming, compared to both dry and moist static stability.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the modeling groups, the Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) and the WCRPs Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM) for their roles in making available the WCRP CMIP3 multi-model dataset. Support of this dataset is provided by the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy. We also acknowledge the World Climate Research Programmes Working Group on Coupled Modelling, which is responsible for CMIP, and we thank the climate modeling groups for producing and making available their model output. For CMIP the U.S. Department of Energys Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison provided coordinating support and led development of software infrastructure in partnership with the Global Organization for Earth System Science Portals. We thank two anonymous reviewers’ valuable comments for improving the quality of this paper. This work was supported by the National Science Council Grants NSC99-2111-M-001-003-MY3, NSC100-2621-M-492-011 and NSC100-2111-M-415-001.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 1-48, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Chia Chou & Tzu-Chin Wu

  2. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chia Chou

  3. Department of History and Geography, National Chiayi University, Chiayi, Taiwan

    Pei-Hua Tan

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  1. Chia Chou
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  2. Tzu-Chin Wu
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Correspondence to Chia Chou.

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Chou, C., Wu, TC. & Tan, PH. Changes in gross moist stability in the tropics under global warming. Clim Dyn 41, 2481–2496 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-1703-2

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