Premium
Climate changes in the greater and southern Caribbean
Author(s) -
Singh Bhawan
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
international journal of climatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.58
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-0088
pISSN - 0899-8418
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0088(199708)17:10<1093::aid-joc187>3.0.co;2-l
Subject(s) - climatology , greenhouse gas , climate change , environmental science , abrupt climate change , climate commitment , radiative forcing , climate model , forcing (mathematics) , global warming , gcm transcription factors , cloud cover , general circulation model , effects of global warming , oceanography , geology , cloud computing , computer science , operating system
A climate change resulting from recent increases in the atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) is supposed to occur sometime in the middle of the next century. This climate change induced by GHGs would be caused by radiative forcing through the greenhouse effect and would lead to global warming and eventually to sea‐level rise. This paper presents a climate change scenario for the greater Caribbean as simulated by the Canadian Climate Centre (CCC) general circulation model (GCM). The CCC GCM projects a GHG induced temperature increase of about 2°C and more extreme rainfall conditions for the greater Caribbean. The climate records of temperature, rainfall and cloudiness for several stations on the island of Trinidad are then examined in an attempt to detect GHG climate change signals. The temperature change to date, close to 1°C, and the fluctuations in rainfall patterns, over the last five decades, seem to be indicative of early greenhouse signals. © 1997 The Royal Meteorological Society.