Controls of Global Snow under a Changed ClimateSource: Journal of Climate:;2013:;volume( 026 ):;issue: 015::page 5537DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00528.1Publisher: American Meteorological Society
Abstract: his study assesses the ability of a newly developed high-resolution coupled model from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to simulate the cold-season hydroclimate in the present climate and examines its response to climate change forcing. Output is assessed from a 280-yr control simulation that is based on 1990 atmospheric composition and an idealized 140-yr future simulation in which atmospheric carbon dioxide increases at 1% yr?1 until doubling in year 70 and then remains constant. When compared with a low-resolution model, the high-resolution model is found to better represent the geographic distribution of snow variables in the present climate. In response to idealized radiative forcing changes, both models produce similar global-scale responses in which global-mean temperature and total precipitation increase while snowfall decreases. Zonally, snowfall tends to decrease in the low to midlatitudes and increase in the mid- to high latitudes. At the regional scale, the high- and low-resolution models sometimes diverge in the sign of projected snowfall changes; the high-resolution model exhibits future increases in a few select high-altitude regions, notably the northwestern Himalaya region and small regions in the Andes and southwestern Yukon, Canada. Despite such local signals, there is an almost universal reduction in snowfall as a percent of total precipitation in both models. By using a simple multivariate model, temperature is shown to drive these trends by decreasing snowfall almost everywhere while precipitation increases snowfall in the high altitudes and mid- to high latitudes. Mountainous regions of snowfall increases in the high-resolution model exhibit a unique dominance of the positive contribution from precipitation over temperature.
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contributor author | Kapnick, Sarah B. | |
contributor author | Delworth, Thomas L. | |
date accessioned | 2017-06-09T17:07:16Z | |
date available | 2017-06-09T17:07:16Z | |
date copyright | 2013/08/01 | |
date issued | 2013 | |
identifier issn | 0894-8755 | |
identifier other | ams-79692.pdf | |
identifier uri | http://onlinelibrary.yabesh.ir/handle/yetl/4222500 | |
description abstract | his study assesses the ability of a newly developed high-resolution coupled model from the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory to simulate the cold-season hydroclimate in the present climate and examines its response to climate change forcing. Output is assessed from a 280-yr control simulation that is based on 1990 atmospheric composition and an idealized 140-yr future simulation in which atmospheric carbon dioxide increases at 1% yr?1 until doubling in year 70 and then remains constant. When compared with a low-resolution model, the high-resolution model is found to better represent the geographic distribution of snow variables in the present climate. In response to idealized radiative forcing changes, both models produce similar global-scale responses in which global-mean temperature and total precipitation increase while snowfall decreases. Zonally, snowfall tends to decrease in the low to midlatitudes and increase in the mid- to high latitudes. At the regional scale, the high- and low-resolution models sometimes diverge in the sign of projected snowfall changes; the high-resolution model exhibits future increases in a few select high-altitude regions, notably the northwestern Himalaya region and small regions in the Andes and southwestern Yukon, Canada. Despite such local signals, there is an almost universal reduction in snowfall as a percent of total precipitation in both models. By using a simple multivariate model, temperature is shown to drive these trends by decreasing snowfall almost everywhere while precipitation increases snowfall in the high altitudes and mid- to high latitudes. Mountainous regions of snowfall increases in the high-resolution model exhibit a unique dominance of the positive contribution from precipitation over temperature. | |
publisher | American Meteorological Society | |
title | Controls of Global Snow under a Changed Climate | |
type | Journal Paper | |
journal volume | 26 | |
journal issue | 15 | |
journal title | Journal of Climate | |
identifier doi | 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00528.1 | |
journal fristpage | 5537 | |
journal lastpage | 5562 | |
tree | Journal of Climate:;2013:;volume( 026 ):;issue: 015 | |
contenttype | Fulltext |