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Detailed Reference Information |
Sutton, R.T., Dong, B. and Gregory, J.M. (2007). Land/sea warming ratio in response to climate change: IPCC AR4 model results and comparison with observations. Geophysical Research Letters 34: doi: 10.1029/2006GL028164. issn: 0094-8276. |
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Climate model simulations consistently show that in response to greenhouse gas forcing surface temperatures over land increase more rapidly than over sea. The enhanced warming over land is not simply a transient effect, since it is also present in equilibrium conditions. We examine 20 models from the IPCC AR4 database. The global land/sea warming ratio varies in the range 1.36--1.84, independent of global mean temperature change. In the presence of increasing radiative forcing, the warming ratio for a single model is fairly constant in time, implying that the land/sea temperature difference increases with time. The warming ratio varies with latitude, with a minimum in equatorial latitudes, and maxima in the subtropics. A simple explanation for these findings is provided, and comparisons are made with observations. For the low-latitude (40¿S--40¿N) mean, the models suggest a warming ratio of 1.51 ¿ 0.13, while recent observations suggest a ratio of 1.54 ¿ 0.09. |
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BACKGROUND DATA FILES |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Global Change, Climate dynamics (0429, 3309), Global Change, Impacts of global change, Global Change, Global climate models (3337, 4928), Global Change, Oceans (1616, 3305, 4215, 4513), Global Change, Land/atmosphere interactions (1218, 1843, 3322) |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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