Open AccessSurface air temperature variability in global climate models
Author(s) -
Davy Richard,
Esau Igor
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
atmospheric science letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.951
H-Index - 45
ISSN - 1530-261X
DOI - 10.1002/asl2.456
Subject(s) - orographic lift , forcing (mathematics) , climatology , environmental science , standard deviation , coupled model intercomparison project , surface air temperature , atmosphere (unit) , atmospheric sciences , climate model , sea surface temperature , meteorology , climate change , geography , precipitation , geology , mathematics , statistics , oceanography
New results from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 ( CMIP5 ) and multiple global reanalysis datasets are used to investigate the relationship between the mean and standard deviation (SD) in the surface air temperature (SAT) at intra‐ and inter‐annual timescales. A combination of a land–sea mask and orographic filter was used to investigate the geographic region with the strongest correlation and in all cases this was found to be for low‐lying over‐land locations. This result is consistent with the expectation that differences in the effective heat capacity of the atmosphere are an important factor in determining the SAT response to forcing.