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Link between land‐ocean warming contrast and surface relative humidities in simulations with coupled climate models
Author(s) -
Byrne Michael P.,
O'Gorman Paul A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/grl.50971
Subject(s) - relative humidity , environmental science , climatology , humidity , climate model , effects of global warming on oceans , global warming , atmospheric sciences , climate change , contrast (vision) , sea surface temperature , tropics , meteorology , oceanography , geography , geology , ecology , artificial intelligence , computer science , biology
Simulations of warming climates with coupled climate models exhibit strong land‐ocean contrasts in changes in surface temperature and relative humidity, but little land‐ocean contrast in changes in equivalent potential temperature. A theory that assumes equal changes in equivalent potential temperature over land and ocean captures the simulated land‐ocean warming contrast in the tropics if changes in relative humidity and ocean temperature are taken as given. According to the theory, land relative humidity changes and the land‐ocean contrast in the control climate contribute equally to the tropical warming contrast, while ocean relative humidity changes make a smaller (but also positive) contribution. Intermodel scatter in the tropical warming contrast is primarily linked to land relative humidity changes. These results emphasize the need to better constrain land relative humidity changes in model simulations, and they are also relevant for changes in heat stress over land.