Desert Amplification of Greenhouse Gas Warming
Abstract
Surface temperatures over the Sahara and Arabian Deserts are increasing at a rate that is 3.5 times that of the global mean. These regions have warmed by 1.4 K between 1980 and 2012. In the tropical (and global) mean, added energy incident at the surface due to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases is used partly to increase the surface temperature, and partly to evaporate water. The resulting atmospheric water vapor anomaly is effectively mixed vertically and horizontally throughout the tropics on annual time scales, and amplifies the greenhouse effect (increased longwave back radiation to the surface) everywhere, including over the deserts. But, on the desert surface, evaporative cooling is disabled and the enhanced longwave energy incident on the surface serves only to increase surface temperature. Despite the fact that this desert amplification mechanism should operate over any dry surface, the other deserts of the world are not exhibiting accelerated warming. Each of these deserts is smaller than the Sahara/Arabian Desert area, and various regional processes dominate over the desert amplification mechanism.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AGUFMGC51A0945C
- Keywords:
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- 1637 GLOBAL CHANGE Regional climate change