Weakening of the extratropical storm tracks in solar geoengineering scenarios
Name
gertler_storm_tracks_geoengineering_2020.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.57 MB
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Author(s)
Gertler, Charles G.
O'Gorman, Paul Ambrose
Kravitz, Ben
Moore, John C
Phipps, Steven J
Watanabe, Shingo
Date Issued
2020
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
©2020. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Solar geoengineering that aims to offset global warming could nonetheless alter atmospheric temperature gradients and humidity and thus affect the extratropical storm tracks. Here, we first analyze climate model simulations from experiment G1 of the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project, in which a reduction in incoming solar radiation balances a quadrupling of CO2. The Northern Hemisphere extratropical storm track weakens by a comparable amount in G1 as it does for increased CO2 only. The Southern Hemisphere storm track also weakens in G1, in contrast to a strengthening and poleward shift for increased CO2. Using mean available potential energy, we show that the changes in zonal-mean temperature and humidity are sufficient to explain the different responses of storm-track intensity. We also demonstrate similar weakening in a more complex geoengineering scenario. Our results offer insight into how geoengineering affects storm tracks, highlighting the potential for geoengineering to induce novel climate changes.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
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.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL087348
