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- Cohen, Judah, et al.
(author)
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ARCTIC CHANGE AND POSSIBLE INFLUENCE ON MID-LATITUDE CLIMATE AND WEATHER - A US CLIVAR White Paper
- 2018
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the global average since the mid 20th century, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification (AA). These profound changes to the Arctic system have coincided with a period of ostensibly more frequent events of extreme weather across the Northern Hemisphere (NH) mid-latitudes, including extreme heat and rainfall events and recent severe winters. Though winter temperatures have generally warmed since 1960 over mid-to-high latitudes, the acceleration in the rate of warming at high-latitudes, relative to the rest of the NH, started approximately in 1990. Trends since 1990 show cooling over the NH continents, especially in Northern Eurasia. The possible link between Arctic change and mid-latitude climate and weather has spurred a rush of new observational and modeling studies. A number of workshops held during 2013-2014 have helped frame the problem and have called for continuing and enhancing efforts for improving our understanding of Arctic-mid-latitude linkages and its attribution to the occurrence of extreme climate and weather events. Although these workshops have outlined some of the major challenges and provided broad recommendations, further efforts are needed to synthesize the diversified research results to identify where community consensus and gaps exist. Building upon findings and recommendations of the previous workshops, the US CLIVAR Working Group on Arctic Change and Possible Influence on Mid-latitude Climate and Weather convened an international workshop at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on February 1-3, 2017. Experts in the fields of atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere sciences assembled to assess the rapidly evolving state of understanding, identify consensus on knowledge and gaps in research, and develop specific actions to accelerate progress within the research community. With more than 100 participants, the workshop was the largest and most comprehensive gathering of climate scientists to address the topic to date. In this white paper, we synthesize and discuss outcomes from this workshop and activities involving many of the working group members.
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2. |
- Liu, Yinghui, et al.
(author)
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Time Evolution of the Cloud Response to Moisture Intrusions into the Arctic during Winter
- 2018
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In: Journal of Climate. - 0894-8755 .- 1520-0442. ; 31:22, s. 9389-9405
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Northward fluxes of moisture and sensible heat into the Arctic affect the atmospheric stability, sea ice and snow cover, clouds, and surface energy budget. Intense moisture fluxes into the Arctic are called moisture intrusions; some can lead to basinwide increases in downward longwave radiation (DLR) at the surface, called downward infrared (IR) events. Using the ERA-Interim reanalysis from 1990 to 2016, this study investigated the time evolution of cloud amount and cloud properties and their impact on the surface radiation fluxes in response to Arctic moisture intrusions and downward IR events during winter for better understanding of the Arctic moisture intrusions. A composite analysis revealed several key features: moisture intrusions produce more clouds and higher cloud liquid and ice water content; positive cloud amount anomalies can persist for over 10 days over the Arctic Ocean during downward IR events; positive high-level and middle-level cloud anomalies are evident in the early stage, and positive low-level cloud anomalies are evident in the late stage. Greater clear-sky DLR and longwave cloud radiative forcing (CRF) over the Arctic Ocean accompany the greater all-sky DLR during the downward IR events. Greater clear-sky DLR can be attributed to higher air temperatures and higher total column water vapor, while greater longwave CRF is the result of larger cloud amount and cloud water content. Longwave CRF anomalies account for approximately 40% of the all-sky DLR anomalies.
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