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Monitoring twenty‐first century climate using GPS radio occultation bending angles
Author(s) -
Ringer Mark A.,
Healy Sean B.
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1029/2007gl032462
Subject(s) - troposphere , radio occultation , stratosphere , atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , climate change , water vapor , bending , occultation , greenhouse gas , climatology , climate model , geology , meteorology , geography , physics , ionosphere , geophysics , astronomy , thermodynamics , oceanography
Simulations of radio occultation bending angle profiles in transient climate experiments using a state‐of‐the‐art global coupled climate model show a clear signal in bending angle emerging over the first half of the twenty‐first century. The bending angle signal can be related to the predicted changes in the climate over this period in response to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and is shown to be primarily a combination of three distinct effects: the changing temperature structure of the atmosphere, increased water vapor in the troposphere, and the expansion of the atmosphere due to the warming. Analysis of the predicted trends in the bending angle indicates that the climate change signal in the tropical upper troposphere and lower and middle stratosphere may become distinguishable from natural variability, i.e. “detected”, after approximately ten to sixteen years of measurements. This suggests that such observations may be one of our best prospects for monitoring the evolution of the climate over the coming decades.