학술논문

Changing Northern Hemisphere Storm Tracks in an Ensemble of IPCC Climate Change Simulations.
Document Type
Article
Source
Journal of Climate. Apr2008, Vol. 21 Issue 8, p1669-1679. 11p. 3 Charts, 2 Maps.
Subject
*CLIMATE change
*GREENHOUSE gases
*GLOBAL warming
*STORMS
*STANDARD deviations
*CLIMATE research
*EFFECT of human beings on weather
Language
ISSN
0894-8755
Abstract
Winter storm-track activity over the Northern Hemisphere and its changes in a greenhouse gas scenario (the Special Report on Emission Scenarios A1B forcing) are computed from an ensemble of 23 single runs from 16 coupled global climate models (CGCMs). All models reproduce the general structures of the observed climatological storm-track pattern under present-day forcing conditions. Ensemble mean changes resulting from anthropogenic forcing include an increase of baroclinic wave activity over the eastern North Atlantic, amounting to 5%–8% by the end of the twenty-first century. Enhanced activity is also found over the Asian continent and over the North Pacific near the Aleutian Islands. At high latitudes and over parts of the subtropics, activity is reduced. Variations of the individual models around the ensemble average signal are not small, with a median of the pattern correlation near r = 0.5. There is, however, no evidence for a link between deviations in present-day climatology and deviations with respect to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]