RT Journal Article
T1 Stratospheric water vapor affecting atmospheric circulation
A1 Charlesworth, Edward
A1 Plöger, Felix
A1 Birner, Thomas
A1 Baikhadzhaev, Rasul
A1 Ábalos Álvarez, Marta
A1 Abraham, Nathan Luke
A1 Akiyoshi, Hideharu
A1 Slimane Bekki, Slimane
A1 Dennison, Fraser
A1 Jöckel, Patrick
A1 Keeble, James
A1 Kinnison, Doug
A1 Morgenstern, Olaf
A1 Plummer, David
A1 Rozanov, Eugene
A1 Strode, Sarah
A1 Zeng, Guang
A1 Egorova, Tatiana
A1 Riese, Martin
AB Water vapor plays an important role in many aspects of the climate system, by affecting radiation, cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. Even the low stratospheric water vapor content provides an important climate feedback, but current climate models show a substantial moist bias in the lowermost stratosphere. Here we report crucial sensitivity of the atmospheric circulation in the stratosphere and troposphere to the abundance of water vapor in the lowermost stratosphere. We show from a mechanistic climate model experiment and inter-model variability that lowermost stratospheric water vapor decreases local temperatures, and thereby causes an upward and poleward shift of subtropical jets, a strengthening of the stratospheric circulation, a poleward shift of the tropospheric eddy-driven jet and regional climate impacts. The mechanistic model experiment in combination with atmospheric observations further shows that the prevailing moist bias in current models is likely caused by the transport scheme, and can be alleviated by employing a less diffusive Lagrangian scheme. The related effects on atmospheric circulation are of similar magnitude as climate change effects. Hence, lowermost stratospheric water vapor exerts a first order effect on atmospheric circulation and improving its representation in models offers promising prospects for future research.
PB Nature Research
YR 2023
FD 2023-07-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/108149
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/108149
LA eng
NO Charlesworth, E., Plöger, F., Birner, T. et al. Stratospheric water vapor affecting atmospheric circulation. Nat Commun 14, 3925 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39559-2
NO German Research Foundation
NO Helmholtz Association
NO Helmholtz Young Investigators Group A-SPECi
NO Chemistry-Climate Modeling
NO Met Office CSSP-China programme
NO NZ Government's Strategic Science Investment Fund (SSIF) through the NIWA programme CACV
NO Swiss National Science Foundation
NO Swiss National Supercomputing Centre
DS Docta Complutense
RD 10 abr 2025