High-Resolution Regional Climate Simulations in the Rocky Mountains: Regional Temperature Responses to Climate Change
Abstract
Using a pair of 4-km resolution simulations with the WRF model (i.e., the 8-year continuous simulation from October 2000 through 2008 and the corresponding pseudo-global-warming simulation in which climate perturbations are added in the reanalysis-generated initial and boundary conditions), we investigated the regional features of temperature responses to global warming and associated physical processes over the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Our major findings include: 1) significant mesoscale regional variabilities are present in temperature changes, primarily due to topographical modifications; 2) an elevation dependency of the temperature warming does exist, but this feature highly depends on the time scales; 3) overall, the warming signal over the Rockies is stronger than nearby regions in the winter, spring and summer, but the associated mechanisms vary seasonally; 4) on average, the diurnal temperature range decreases in the winter and increases in the summertime in the future warmer climate; and 5) the snowpack-albedo feedback and cloud-radiation interaction are the principal physical mechanisms responsible for the aforementioned climate warming features.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A41H0066L
- Keywords:
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- 1637 GLOBAL CHANGE / Regional climate change;
- 3305 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Climate change and variability;
- 3310 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Clouds and cloud feedbacks;
- 3355 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Regional modeling