| 1. |
- Papritz, Lukas, et al.
(författare)
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The Role of Local and Remote Processes for Wintertime Surface Energy Budget Extremes over Arctic Sea Ice
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Climate. - : American Meteorological Society. - 0894-8755 .- 1520-0442. ; 36:21, s. 7657-7674
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Arctic warm extremes and anomalous sea ice melting have been linked to episodic injections of warm and moist air from midlatitudes, as well as airmass transformations inside the Arctic. However, the relative importance of remote and local processes for such events remains unclear. Here, we focus on events with extreme positive daily-mean surface energy budget (SEB) anomalies over Arctic sea ice in ERA5 data during extended winters (November-March during 1979-2020). Kinematic backward trajectories from the tropospheric column collocated with the SEB anomalies show that near-surface air is of Arctic origin, whereas air farther aloft is transported poleward from the midlatitudes and ascends. Despite the different origin of the air, the entire tropospheric column shows pronounced potential temperature anomalies (on the order of 10 K) building up along air-parcel trajectories over 2-4 days. Quantifying the contributions of horizontal and vertical transport as well as diabatic processes to the generation of these potential temperature anomalies emphasizes the relevance of horizontal advection across the climatological potential temperature gradient for the generation of the anomalies at all levels. Anomalies aloft are further enhanced by latent heating and those near the surface by subsidence, respectively. Surface heat fluxes over subpolar and polar oceans are key for warming and moistening the near-surface air of predominantly Arctic origin and maintaining a positive potential temperature anomaly, which due to its proximity to the surface unfolds the strongest impact on the SEB. This suggests that Arctic airmasses and their local transformations are crucial for generating the most extreme SEB anomalies.
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| 2. |
- Sardina, Gaetano, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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Broadening of Cloud Droplet Size Spectra by Stochastic Condensation: Effects of Mean Updraft Velocity and CCN Activation
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journals of the Atmospheric Sciences. - : American Meteorological Society. - 1520-0469 .- 0022-4928. ; 75:2, s. 451-467
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The authors study the condensational growth of cloud droplets in homogeneous isotropic turbulence by means of a large-eddy simulation (LES) approach. The authors investigate the role of a mean updraft velocity and of the chemical composition of the cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) on droplet growth. The results show that a mean constant updraft velocity superimposed onto a turbulent field reduces the broadening of the droplet size spectra induced by the turbulent fluctuations alone. Extending the authors' previous results regarding stochastic condensation, the authors introduce a new theoretical estimation of the droplet size spectrum broadening that accounts for this updraft velocity effect. A similar reduction of the spectra broadening is observed when the droplets reach their critical size, which depends on the chemical composition of CCN. The analysis of the square of the droplet radius distribution, proportional to the droplet surface, shows that for large particles the distribution is purely Gaussian, while it becomes strongly non-Gaussian for smaller particles, with the left tail characterized by a peak around the haze activation radius. This kind of distribution can significantly affect the later stages of the droplet growth involving turbulent collisions, since the collision probability kernel depends on the droplet size, implying the need for new specific closure models to capture this effect.
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| 3. |
- Maldonado, Tito, et al.
(författare)
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The role of the meridional sea surface temperature gradient in controlling the Caribbean low-level jet
- 2017
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Ingår i: Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres. - 2169-897X .- 2169-8996. ; 122:11, s. 5903-5916
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Caribbean low-level jet (CLLJ) is an important modulator of regional climate, especially precipitation, in the Caribbean and Central America. Previous work has inferred, due to their semiannual cycle, an association between CLLJ strength and meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients in the Caribbean Sea, suggesting that the SST gradients may control the intensity and vertical shear of the CLLJ. In addition, both the horizontal and vertical structure of the jet have been related to topographic effects via interaction with the mountains in Northern South America (NSA), including funneling effects and changes in the meridional geopotential gradient. Here we test these hypotheses, using an atmospheric general circulation model to perform a set of sensitivity experiments to examine the impact of both SST gradients and topography on the CLLJ. In one sensitivity experiment, we remove the meridional SST gradient over the Caribbean Sea and in the other, we flatten the mountains over NSA. Our results show that the SST gradient and topography have little or no impact on the jet intensity, vertical, and horizontal wind shears, contrary to previous works. However, our findings do not discount a possible one-way coupling between the SST and the wind over the Caribbean Sea through friction force. We also examined an alternative approach based on barotropic instability to understand the CLLJ intensity, vertical, and horizontal wind shears. Our results show that the current hypothesis about the CLLJ must be reviewed in order to fully understand the atmospheric dynamics governing the Caribbean region.
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| 4. |
- Carlson, Henrik, 1986-
(författare)
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Atmospheric dynamics and the hydrologic cycle in warm climates
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Past warm climates represent one extreme of Earth's known climate states. Here, we study warm climates in both idealized simulations and full-complexity general circulation model (GCM) simulations of the early Eocene epoch, approximately 50 million years ago.In increasingly warmer idealized aquaplanet simulations, the amplitude of intra-seasonal tropical variability is enhanced. The anomalies propagate eastward in the tropics and resemble the observed Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). The strong MJO anomalies drive a momentum convergence on the equator that causes westerly winds in the troposphere, a state known as superrotation. The results in this thesis show that superrotation further enhances the MJO by affecting the penetration of midlatitude eddies into the deep tropics. An additional question is how a super-rotating atmosphere, a dramatically different general circulation regime compared to today, will affect the climate, potentially via changes in cloud distributions and ocean circulation. If the superrotation extends down to the surface near the equator, surface westerly winds will drive equatorial downwelling in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, rather than upwelling as in the present climate. Here, we show that surface superrotation is unlikely in past warm climates, although this in part depends on the intensity of the vertical momentum transfer associated with cumulus convection and how this process is represented in a specific GCM. There is, currently, no consensus on what the specific mix of forcings was that caused the warm climates of the early Eocene. High greenhouse gases likely played a significant role, but simulations with reasonable greenhouse gas concentrations cannot reproduce the high temperatures estimated by proxy data. Here, we investigate both an early Eocene climate forced by high greenhouse gas concentrations and one forced by optically thinner clouds, with artificially increased cloud droplet radius that causes increased solar radiation at the surface. Both alternative warming scenarios produce nearly identical zonal mean temperatures, but the hydrologic cycle differs; the thinner clouds scenario has 11% larger global mean precipitation. Moreover, the results in this thesis indicate that a reasonable estimate of vegetation, based on the model simulation, is likely necessary to evaluate alternative warming scenarios with proxy data.
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| 5. |
- Dimitrelos, Antonios, 1986-
(författare)
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A large-eddy simulation perspective on Arctic airmass transformation and low-level cloud evolution
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The Arctic is currently warming faster than other regions of the Earth. Many processes and feedbacks contribute to the enhanced warming. Among these are the radiative effects of clouds. Arctic mixed-phase clouds, which contain both liquid and ice condensate, have high longevity and can exert significant surface warming since the amount of solar radiation in the region is relatively low and the surface reflectivity often is high. In this thesis, we study these clouds utilizing a large-eddy model coupled with one-dimensional thermodynamic sea ice model. The main aim is to understand the interactions between cloud dynamics, microphysics, radiation, and turbulent processes and how these together govern the life cycle and surface warming of the clouds. By comparing a group of models with observations from the summertime high Arctic, we confirm the hypothesis that when aerosol concentrations are low, a small increase in their number concentration can increase the liquid water content of the cloud and in turn, the surface warming. Idealized simulations of moist intrusions into the Arctic show that the surface temperature may increase by more than 15o C if we allow clouds to form during a moist intrusion compared to if the atmosphere is cloud free. The simulations also show that the large-scale divergence rate strongly impacts the maintenance of the liquid layer at the top of these clouds. A main finding of the thesis is that the temperature of the cloud that forms during a moist intrusion is close to the initial dew point temperature. Thus, the surface warming induced by the clouds depends mostly on the initial humidity of the air mass rather than the initial temperature. In addition, the stability of the initial dew point temperature profile largely controls the turbulent state of the cloud. If the profile is unstable, then the cloud can transform from a thin, stable stratus to a deeper stratocumulus cloud, which also enhances the surface warming. Consequently, both the initial amount and the vertical structure of the initial moisture of the intrusion are important for the warming of the sea ice. A change in the number of cloud condensation nuclei does not affect the cloud evolution considerably provided that there is a continuous supply of these nuclei. However, if cloud condensation nuclei sources are absent then the cloud may remain in its stable state. Furthermore, a decrease in the cloud ice condensate, which may be caused by a lack of ice nucleation particles, may delay the transformation of the cloud into a stratocumulus. These results suggest that any future change in aerosol loading and atmospheric moisture transport into the Arctic may alter the surface longwave cloud radiative effect and cause changes in the sea ice evolution.
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| 6. |
- Kleman, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Pre-LGM Northern Hemisphere ice sheet topography
- 2013
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 9, s. 2365-2378
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We here reconstruct the paleotopography of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the glacial maxima of marine isotope stages (MIS) 5b and 4.We employ a combined approach, blending geologically based reconstruction and numerical modeling, to arrive at probable ice sheet extents and topographies for each of these two time slices. For a physically based 3-D calculation based on geologically derived 2-D constraints, we use the University of Maine Ice Sheet Model (UMISM) to calculate ice sheet thickness and topography. The approach and ice sheet modeling strategy is designed to provide robust data sets of sufficient resolution for atmospheric circulation experiments for these previously elusive time periods. Two tunable parameters, a temperature scaling function applied to a spliced Vostok–GRIP record, and spatial adjustment of the climatic pole position, were employed iteratively to achieve a good fit to geological constraints where such were available. The model credibly reproduces the first-order pattern of size and location of geologically indicated ice sheets during marine isotope stages (MIS) 5b (86.2 kyr model age) and 4 (64 kyr model age). From the interglacial state of two north–south obstacles to atmospheric circulation (Rocky Mountains and Greenland), by MIS 5b the emergence of combined Quebec–central Arctic and Scandinavian–Barents-Kara ice sheets had increased the number of such highland obstacles to four. The number of major ice sheets remained constant through MIS 4, but the merging of the Cordilleran and the proto-Laurentide Ice Sheet produced a single continent-wide North American ice sheet at the LGM.
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| 7. |
- Goldner, A., et al.
(författare)
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Does Antarctic glaciation cool the world?
- 2013
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Ingår i: Climate of the Past. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1814-9324 .- 1814-9332. ; 9:1, s. 173-189
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this study, we compare the simulated climatic impact of adding an Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) to the greenhouse world of the Eocene and removing the AIS from the modern world. The modern global mean surface temperature anomaly (Delta T) induced by Antarctic Glaciation depends on the background CO2 levels and ranges from -1.22 to -0.18 K. The Eocene Delta T is nearly constant at similar to-0.25 K. We calculate an climate sensitivity parameter S[Antarctica] which we define as Delta T divided by the change in effective radiative forcing (Delta Q(Antarctica)) which includes some fast feedbacks imposed by prescribing the glacial properties of Antarctica. The main difference between the modern and Eocene responses is that a negative cloud feedback warms much of the Earth's surface as a large AIS is introduced in the Eocene, whereas this cloud feedback is weakly positive and acts in combination with positive sea-ice feedbacks to enhance cooling introduced by adding an ice sheet in the modern. Because of the importance of cloud feedbacks in determining the final temperature sensitivity of the AIS, our results are likely to be model dependent. Nevertheless, these model results suggest that the effective radiative forcing and feedbacks induced by the AIS did not significantly decrease global mean surface temperature across the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT -34.1 to 33.6 Ma) and that other factors like declining atmospheric CO2 are more important for cooling across the EOT. The results illustrate that the efficacy of AIS forcing in the Eocene is not necessarily close to one and is likely to be model and state dependent. This implies that using EOT paleoclimate proxy data by itself to estimate climate sensitivity for future climate prediction requires climate models and consequently these estimates will have large uncertainty, largely due to uncertainties in modelling low clouds.
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| 8. |
- Blanco, Joaquin, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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A Cloud-Controlling Factor Perspective on the Hemispheric Asymmetry of Extratropical Cloud Albedo
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Climate. - 0894-8755 .- 1520-0442. ; 36:6, s. 1793-1804
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Northern and Southern Hemispheres reflect on average almost equal amounts of sunlight due to compensating hemispheric asymmetries in clear-sky and cloud albedo. Recent work indicates that the cloud albedo asymmetry is largely due to clouds in extratropical oceanic regions. Here, we investigate the proximate causes of this extratropical cloud albedo asymmetry using a cloud-controlling factor (CCF) approach. We develop a simple index that measures the skill of CCFs, either individually or in combination, in predicting the asymmetry. The index captures the contribution to the asymmetry due to interhemispheric differences in the probability distribution function of daily CCF values. Cloud albedo is quantified using daily MODIS satellite retrievals, and is related to range of CCFs derived from the ERA5 product. We find that sea surface temperature is the CCF that individually explains the largest fraction of the asymmetry, followed by surface wind. The asymmetry is predominantly due to low clouds, and our results are consistent with prior local-scale modeling work showing that marine boundary layer clouds become thicker and more extensive as surface wind increases and surface temperature cools. The asymmetry is consistent with large-scale control of storm-track intensity and surface winds by meridional temperature gradients: persistently cold and windy conditions in the Southern Hemisphere keep cloud albedo high year-round. Our results have important implications for global-scale cloud feedbacks and contribute to efforts to develop a theory for planetary albedo and its symmetry.
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| 9. |
- Caballero, Rodrigo, et al.
(författare)
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Midlatitude Eddies, Storm-Track Diffusivity, and Poleward Moisture Transport in Warm Climates
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. - 0022-4928 .- 1520-0469. ; 69:11, s. 3237-3250
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent work using both simplified and comprehensive GCMs has shown that poleward moisture transport across midlatitudes follows Clausius-Clapeyron scaling at temperatures close to modern, but that it reaches a maximum at sufficiently elevated temperatures and then decreases with further warming. This study explores the reasons for this nonmonotonic behavior using a sequence of NCAR Community Atmosphere Model, version 3 (CAM3) simulations in an aquaplanet configuration spanning a broad range of climates. No significant change is found in the scale, structure, or organization of midlatitude eddies across these simulations. Instead, the high-temperature decrease in poleward moisture transport is attributed to the combined effect of decreasing eddy velocities and contracting mixing lengths. The contraction in mixing length is, in turn, a consequence of the decreasing eddy velocities in combination with constant eddy decorrelation time scales.
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| 10. |
- Caballero, Rodrigo, et al.
(författare)
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State-dependent climate sensitivity in past warm climates and its implications for future climate projections
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 110:35, s. 14162-14167
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Projections of future climate depend critically on refined estimates of climate sensitivity. Recent progress in temperature proxies dramatically increases the magnitude of warming reconstructed from early Paleogene greenhouse climates and demands a close examination of the forcing and feedback mechanisms that maintained this warmth and the broad dynamic range that these paleoclimate records attest to. Here, we show that several complementary resolutions to these questions are possible in the context of model simulations using modern and early Paleogene configurations. We find that (i) changes in boundary conditions representative of slow Earth system feedbacks play an important role in maintaining elevated early Paleogene temperatures, (ii) radiative forcing by carbon dioxide deviates significantly from pure logarithmic behavior at concentrations relevant for simulation of the early Paleogene, and (iii) fast or Charney climate sensitivity in this model increases sharply as the climate warms. Thus, increased forcing and increased slow and fast sensitivity can all play a substantial role in maintaining early Paleogene warmth. This poses an equifinality problem: The same climate can be maintained by a different mix of these ingredients; however, at present, the mix cannot be constrained directly from climate proxy data. The implications of strongly state-dependent fast sensitivity reach far beyond the early Paleogene. The study of past warm climates may not narrow uncertainty in future climate projections in coming centuries because fast climate sensitivity may itself be state-dependent, but proxies and models are both consistent with significant increases in fast sensitivity with increasing temperature.
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