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Anthropogenic greenhouse forcing and strong water vapor feedback increase temperature in Europe
Author(s) -
Philipona Rolf,
Dürr Bruno,
Ohmura Atsumu,
Ruckstuhl Christian
Publication year - 2005
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 - 10.1029/2005gl023624
Subject(s) - water vapor , humidity , forcing (mathematics) , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , radiative forcing , climatology , cloud forcing , longwave , global temperature , northern hemisphere , greenhouse effect , climate change , meteorology , radiative transfer , global warming , geography , physics , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics
Europe's temperature increases considerably faster than the northern hemisphere average. Detailed month‐by‐month analyses show temperature and humidity changes for individual months that are similar for all Europe, indicating large‐scale weather patterns uniformly influencing temperature. However, superimposed to these changes a strong west‐east gradient is observed for all months. The gradual temperature and humidity increases from west to east are not related to circulation but must be due to non‐uniform water vapour feedback. Surface radiation measurements in central Europe manifest anthropogenic greenhouse forcing and strong water vapor feedback, enhancing the forcing and temperature rise by about a factor of three. Solar radiation decreases and changing cloud amounts show small net radiative effects. However, high correlation of increasing cloud‐free longwave downward radiation with temperature ( r = 0.99) and absolute humidity ( r = 0.89), and high correlation between ERA‐40 integrated water vapor and CRU surface temperature changes ( r = 0.84), demonstrates greenhouse forcing with strong water vapor feedback.