Link between land-ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models
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Author(s)
Byrne, Michael Patrick
O'Gorman, Paul
Date Issued
October 2013
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Citation
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
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Final published version
Abstract
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.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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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/10.1002/grl.50971
