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How robust are observed and simulated precipitation responses to tropical ocean warming?
Author(s) -
John Viju O.,
Allan Richard P.,
Soden Brian J.
Publication year - 2009
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 - 10.1029/2009gl038276
Subject(s) - precipitation , environmental science , climatology , atmospheric sciences , radiative transfer , moisture , climate change , satellite , climate model , water cycle , sea surface temperature , meteorology , geology , geography , ecology , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics , aerospace engineering , engineering , biology
Robust responses and links between the tropical energy and water cycles are investigated using multiple datasets and climate models over the period 1979–2006. Atmospheric moisture and net radiative cooling provide powerful constraints upon future changes in precipitation. While moisture amount is robustly linked with surface temperature, the response of atmospheric net radiative cooling, derived from satellite data, is less coherent. Precipitation trends and relationships with surface temperature are highly sensitive to the data product and the time‐period considered. Data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) produces the strongest trends in precipitation and response to warming of all the datasets considered. The tendency for moist regions to become wetter while dry regions become drier in response to warming is captured by both observations and models.