Cargando…
Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth
The Earth has warmed in the last century and a large component of that warming has been attributed to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gases. There are also numerous processes that introduce strong, regionalized variations to the overall warming trend. However, the ability of a forcing to change t...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894963/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27221757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11690 |
_version_ | 1782435753843752960 |
---|---|
author | Davy, Richard Esau, Igor |
author_facet | Davy, Richard Esau, Igor |
author_sort | Davy, Richard |
collection | PubMed |
description | The Earth has warmed in the last century and a large component of that warming has been attributed to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gases. There are also numerous processes that introduce strong, regionalized variations to the overall warming trend. However, the ability of a forcing to change the surface air temperature depends on its spatial and temporal distribution. Here we show that the efficacy of a forcing is determined by the effective heat capacity of the atmosphere, which in cold and dry climates is defined by the depth of the planetary boundary layer. This can vary by an order of magnitude on different temporal and spatial scales, and so we get a strongly amplified temperature response in shallow boundary layers. This must be accounted for to assess the efficacy of a climate forcing, and also implies that multiple climate forcings cannot be linearly combined to determine the temperature response. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4894963 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-48949632016-06-21 Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth Davy, Richard Esau, Igor Nat Commun Article The Earth has warmed in the last century and a large component of that warming has been attributed to increased anthropogenic greenhouse gases. There are also numerous processes that introduce strong, regionalized variations to the overall warming trend. However, the ability of a forcing to change the surface air temperature depends on its spatial and temporal distribution. Here we show that the efficacy of a forcing is determined by the effective heat capacity of the atmosphere, which in cold and dry climates is defined by the depth of the planetary boundary layer. This can vary by an order of magnitude on different temporal and spatial scales, and so we get a strongly amplified temperature response in shallow boundary layers. This must be accounted for to assess the efficacy of a climate forcing, and also implies that multiple climate forcings cannot be linearly combined to determine the temperature response. Nature Publishing Group 2016-05-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4894963/ /pubmed/27221757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11690 Text en Copyright © 2016, Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Davy, Richard Esau, Igor Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
title | Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
title_full | Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
title_fullStr | Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
title_full_unstemmed | Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
title_short | Differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
title_sort | differences in the efficacy of climate forcings explained by variations in atmospheric boundary layer depth |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894963/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27221757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11690 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT davyrichard differencesintheefficacyofclimateforcingsexplainedbyvariationsinatmosphericboundarylayerdepth AT esauigor differencesintheefficacyofclimateforcingsexplainedbyvariationsinatmosphericboundarylayerdepth |