Oceanic Influences on Recent Continental Warming
Abstract
Evidence will be presented that the recent worldwide warming of the continents has occurred largely in response to a worldwide warming of the oceans rather than as a direct response to increases of greenhouse gases (GHGs) over the continents. Atmospheric model simulations of the last half-century with prescribed observed ocean temperature changes, but without prescribed GHG changes, account for most of the continental warming. The oceanic influence has occurred through hydrodynamic-radiative teleconnections, primarily by moistening the air over the continents and increasing the downward longwave radiation at the surface. The oceans may themselves have warmed from a combination of natural and anthropogenic influences, as suggested by substantial differences between the observed recent warming trend and the ensemble-mean warming trend simulated by the IPCC models with all the radiative forcings included.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AGUFMGC21A0163C
- Keywords:
-
- 1616 Climate variability (1635;
- 3305;
- 3309;
- 4215;
- 4513);
- 1630 Impacts of global change (1225);
- 1637 Regional climate change;
- 1694 Instruments and techniques