Midlatitude Continental Regions Research Articles

The influence of mid-latitude storm tracks on hot, cold, dry and wet extremes.

Changes in mid-latitude circulation can strongly affect the number and intensity of extreme weather events. In particular, high-amplitude quasi-stationary planetary waves have been linked to prolonged weather extremes at the surface. In contrast, analyses of fast-traveling synoptic-scale waves and their direct influence on heat and cold extremes are scarce though changes in such waves have been detected and are projected for the 21st century. Here we apply regression analyses of synoptic activity with surface temperature and precipitation in monthly gridded observational data. We show that over large parts of mid-latitude continental regions, summer heat extremes are associated with low storm track activity. In winter, the occurrence of cold spells is related to low storm track activity over parts of eastern North America, Europe, and central- to eastern Asia. Storm tracks thus have a moderating effect on continental temperatures. Pronounced storm track activity favors monthly rainfall extremes throughout the year, whereas dry spells are associated with a lack thereof. Trend analyses reveal significant regional changes in recent decades favoring the occurrence of cold spells in the eastern US, droughts in California and heat extremes over Eurasia.

Parametric sensitivity analysis of precipitation at global and local scales in the Community Atmosphere Model CAM5

AbstractWe investigate the sensitivity of precipitation characteristics (mean, extreme, and diurnal cycle) to a set of uncertain parameters that influence the qualitative and quantitative behavior of cloud and aerosol processes in the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5). We adopt both the Latin hypercube and Quasi‐Monte Carlo sampling approaches to effectively explore the high‐dimensional parameter space and then conduct two large sets of simulations. One set consists of 1100 simulations (cloud ensemble) perturbing 22 parameters related to cloud physics and convection, and the other set consists of 256 simulations (aerosol ensemble) focusing on 16 parameters related to aerosols and cloud microphysics. In the cloud ensemble, six parameters having the greatest influences on the global mean precipitation are identified, three of which (related to the deep convection scheme) are the primary contributors to the total variance of the phase and amplitude of the precipitation diurnal cycle over land. The extreme precipitation characteristics are sensitive to a fewer number of parameters. Precipitation does not always respond monotonically to parameter change. The influence of individual parameters does not depend on the sampling approaches or concomitant parameters selected. Generally, the Generalized Linear Model is able to explain more of the parametric sensitivity of global precipitation than local or regional features. The total explained variance for precipitation is primarily due to contributions from the individual parameters (75–90% in total). The total variance shows a significant seasonal variability in midlatitude continental regions, but very small in tropical continental regions.

The impact of neogene grassland expansion and aridification on the isotopic composition of continental precipitation

AbstractThe late Cenozoic was a time of global cooling, increased aridity, and expansion of grasslands. In the last two decades numerous records of oxygen isotopes have been collected to assess plant ecological changes, understand terrestrial paleoclimate, and to determine the surface history of mountain belts. The δ18O values of these records, in general, increase from the mid‐Miocene to the Recent. We suggest that these records record an increase in aridity and expansion of grasslands in midlatitude continental regions. We use a nondimensional isotopic vapor transport model coupled with a soil water isotope model to evaluate the role of vapor recycling and transpiration by different plant functional types. This analysis shows that increased vapor recycling associated with grassland expansion along with biomechanistic changes in transpiration by grasses themselves conspires to lower the horizontal gradient in the δ18O of atmospheric vapor as an air mass moves into continental interiors. The resulting signal at a given inland site is an increase in δ18O of precipitation with the expansion of grasslands and increasing aridity, matching the general observed trend in terrestrial Cenozoic δ18O records. There are limits to the isotopic effect that are induced by vapor recycling, which we refer to here as a “hydrostat.” In the modern climate, this hydrostatic limit occurs at approximately the boundary between forest and grassland ecosystems.

Aerosol size confines climate response to volcanic super‐eruptions

Extremely large volcanic eruptions have been linked to global climate change, biotic turnover, and, for the Younger Toba Tuff (YTT) eruption 74,000 years ago, near‐extinction of modern humans. One of the largest uncertainties of the climate effects involves evolution and growth of aerosol particles. A huge atmospheric concentration of sulfate causes higher collision rates, larger particle sizes, and rapid fall out, which in turn greatly affects radiative feedbacks. We address this key process by incorporating the effects of aerosol microphysical processes into an Earth System Model. The temperature response is shorter (9–10 years) and three times weaker (−3.5 K at maximum globally) than estimated before, although cooling could still have reached −12 K in some midlatitude continental regions after one year. The smaller response, plus its geographic patchiness, suggests that most biota may have escaped threshold extinction pressures from the eruption.

An Analysis of the Soil Moisture Feedback on Convective and Stratiform Precipitation

Abstract Land–atmosphere interactions in midlatitude continental regions are particularly active during the warm season. It is still unclear whether and under what circumstances these interactions may involve positive or negative feedbacks between soil moisture conditions and rainfall occurrence. Assessing such feedbacks is crucially important to a better understanding of the role of land surface conditions on the regional dynamics of the water cycle. This work investigates the relationship between soil moisture and subsequent precipitation at the daily time scale in a midlatitude continental region. Sounding data from 16 locations across the midwestern United States are used to calculate two indices of atmospheric instability—namely, the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the convective inhibition (CIN). These indices are used to classify rainfall as convective or stratiform. Correlation analyses and uniformity tests are then carried out separately for these two rainfall categories, to assess the dependence of rainfall occurrence on antecedent soil moisture conditions, using simulated soil moisture values. The analysis suggests that most of the positive correlation observed between soil moisture and subsequent precipitation is due to the autocorrelation of long stratiform events. The authors found both areas with positive and areas with negative feedback on convective precipitation. This behavior is likely due to the contrasting effects of soil moisture conditions on convective phenomena through changes in surface temperature and the supply of water vapor to the overlying air column. No significant correlation is found between daily rainfall intensity and antecedent simulated soil moisture conditions either for convective or stratiform rainfall.

The Sahara as a vicariant agent, and the role of Miocene climatic events, in the diversification of the mammalian order Macroscelidea (elephant shrews).

Although the Sahara is a major geographical feature of the African continent, its role in the diversification of animal species is not well understood. We present here a molecular phylogeny for members of the endemic African mammalian order Macroscelidea (elephant shrews) with molecular-clock calculations; this molecular phylogeny provides convincing evidence that the genus Elephantulus is diphyletic. Elephantulus rozeti, the only elephant shrew species that resides north of the Sahara, is the sister group of a species from a different genus (Petrodromus tetradactylus), which resides just south of the Sahara. The split between these taxa coincided with major Miocene climatic events, which triggered the cooling and aridification of midlatitude continental regions, and a shift in the Sahara from a tropical to an arid environment. Thus, the North African distribution of E. rozeti is not the result of dispersion from an eastern species of the genus, but instead the result of a vicariant event involving the formation of the Sahara. The splitting events involved with most Elephantulus species in our analysis appear to coincide with these climatic events. This coincidence suggests that the environmental consequences associated with this period played an important role in the radiation of this order of mammals. The strongly supported phylogeny provides compelling evidence for a complex history of mosaic evolution, including pronounced bradytelic morphological evolution in some lineages, accelerated morphological evolution in others, and a remarkably slow rate of evolution of the male reproductive structure.

Atmospheric formic and acetic acids: An overview

Interest in the role of organic acids as chemical constituents in troposphere has been growing rapidly over the past couple of decades. In addition to their presence in the atmosphere in a variety of phases, organic acids are important constituents of the global troposphere and contribute a large fraction (∼25%) to the nonmethane hydrocarbon atmospheric mixture. They contribute significantly to the acidity of precipitation and cloud water, especially in remote regions. In this review, we consider the information presently available on concentration distribution of formic and acetic acids in multiple phases and their sources in different geographical locations, i.e., midlatitude continental, tropical continental and marine sites. Photochemical reactions (i.e., ozone‐olefin reaction, isoprene oxidation, gas phase reaction of formaldehyde with HO2, and aqueous phase oxidation of formaldehyde) are important sources of these acids. In midlatitude continental regions, possible sources of formic and acetic acids, in addition to photochemical reactive vehicular emission, are direct emission from vegetation and biomass burning. In tropical continental sites, direct emission from vehicles, ants, soil, vegetation, and biomass burning are the important source of these species. The probable sources at marine locations are photochemical reactions, biogenic emissions, and long‐range transport from continental sites.

Parameterization of the solar radiative characteristics of low clouds and studies with a general circulation model

A broadband parameterization that improves the quantitative estimates of the solar radiative characteristics of low clouds is developed using reference solutions. The accuracy of the parameterization in determining the shortwave cloud absorption for a wide variety of low‐cloud conditions is better than 20%. Other broadband treatments, which do not adequately account for the influences due to above‐ and in‐cloud water vapor and water drop extinction, are also considered to investigate the sensitivity to these factors. The computed northern hemisphere summertime fluxes reveal that (1) the absorbed solar flux in low clouds (Fabs) is overestimated at high latitudes if the effect of attenuation by the above‐cloud vapor is ignored in the determination of the water drop absorption, (2) Fabs is underestimated in the tropical regions if in‐cloud vapor absorption is not considered, and (3) the conservative scattering assumption for drops yields a substantial underestimate of Fabs at most latitudes. General circulation model simulations with fixed sea surface temperatures and cloud amounts further highlight the significance of the vapor and drop optical properties. Differences in the broadband treatment of the radiative interactions with vapor and drops in low clouds introduce changes in the solar fluxes absorbed by the atmosphere and the surface; for the cases considered here, the solar flux change at the top of the atmosphere differs in sign from that at the surface. The flux differences bring about changes in vertical motion and precipitation; these, in turn, are accompanied by perturbations in the various components of the land surface heat (e.g., latent and sensible heat losses) and moisture (e.g., soil moisture, evaporation) budgets. For approximately similar solar flux differences the changes in the vertical motion, precipitation, and land surface parameters are dissimilar in the tropical and the midlatitude continental regions. Thus because of the adjustments in the atmosphere and the coupling between the atmosphere and the land surface processes, solar flux differences due to biases or deficiencies in the radiative treatment of vapor and drops affect the simulation of the hydrologic fields and the heat balance, including the atmospheric and land surface temperatures.

The middle Miocene climatic transition: East Antarctic ice sheet development, deep ocean circulation and global carbon cycling

The middle Miocene represents a major change in state in Cenozoic climatic evolution, following the climax of Neogene warmth in the late early Miocene at ∼16 Ma. The early stage of this climatic transition from ∼16 to 14.8 Ma was marked by major short term variations in global climates, East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) volume, sea level, and deep ocean circulation. In the later stage from ∼14.8 to 12.9 Ma, climatic developments included major growth of the EAIS and associated Antarctic cooling, a distinct increase in the meridional temperature gradient, large fluctuations in sea level followed by a global sea level fall, and important changes in deep water circulation, including increased production of Southern Component Water. East Antarctic ice sheet growth and polar cooling also had large effects on global carbon cycling and on the terrestrial biosphere, including aridification of mid-latitude continental regions. Increased stability of the EAIS after 14.8 Ma represents a crucial step in the establishment of late Neogene global climate systems. What controlled these changes in polar climates and the East Antarctic ice sheet? Deep ocean circulation changes probably played a major role in the evolution and variation in polar climates, as they have throughout the Cenozoic. Oxygen and carbon isotopic evidence for warm, saline deep water production in the eastern Tethyan/northern Indian Ocean indicates that meridional heat transport to the Antarctic inhibited Cenozoic polar cooling and EAIS growth during the early middle Miocene from ∼16 to ∼14.8 Ma. Inferred competition between warm low-latitude sources (derived from the eastern Tethyan-northern Indian Ocean) and a cold high-latitude source (Southern Component Water) from ∼16 to 14.8 Ma may have been associated with instability in the Antarctic climate and cryosphere. Reduction of warm, saline deep water flow to the Southern Ocean at ∼14.8 Ma may have decreased meridional heat transport to the Antarctic, cooling the region and leading to increased production of Southern Component Water. These middle Miocene climatic and cryospheric changes in the Antarctic had profound effects on marine and terrestrial climates. As the meridional surface temperature gradient increased, boundaries between climatic zones strengthened, leading to increased aridification of mid-latitude continental regions in Australia, Africa and North and South America, enhancing the development of grasslands and stimulating the evolution of grazing mammals.

Climatology and natural variability of the global hydrologic cycle in the GLA atmospheric general circulation model

Time average climatology and low‐frequency variabilities of the global hydrologic cycle (GHC) in the Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres (GLA) general circulation model (GCM) were investigated in the present work. A 730‐day experiment was conducted with the GLA GCM forced by insolation, sea surface temperature, and ice‐snow undergoing climatological annual cycles. Influences of interactive soil moisture on time average climatology and natural variability of the GHC were also investigated by conducting 365‐day experiments with and without interactive soil moisture. Insolation, sea surface temperature, and ice‐snow were fixed at their July levels in the latter two experiments. Results show that the model's time average hydrologic cycle variables for July in all three experiments agree reasonably well with observations. Except in the case of precipitable water, the zonal average climates of the annual cycle experiment and the two perpetual July experiments are alike, i.e., their differences are within limits of the natural variability of the model's climate. Statistics of various components of the GHC, i.e., water vapor, evaporation, and precipitation, are significantly affected by the presence of interactive soil moisture. Even with fixed external conditions, the GHC exhibits a variety of low‐frequency natural variabilities. A long‐term trend is found in the principal empirical modes of variability of ground wetness, evaporation, and sensible heat. Dominant modes of variability of these quantities over land are physically consistent with one another and with land surface energy balance requirements. The dominant empirical modes of ground wetness variability in the annual cycle and perpetual July experiments have similar spatial patterns. The dominant mode of precipitation variability is found to be closely related to organized convection over the tropical western Pacific Ocean. The precipitation variability has timescales in the range of 2 to 3 months and can be identified with the stationary component of the Madden‐Julian Oscillation. The precipitation mode is not sensitive to the presence of interactive soil moisture but is closely linked to both the rotational and divergent components of atmospheric moisture transport. The present results indicate that globally coherent natural variability of the GHC in the GLA GCM has two basic timescales in the absence of annual cycles of external forcings: a long‐term trend associated with atmosphere‐soil moisture interaction which affects the model atmosphere mostly over midlatitude continental regions and a large‐scale 2‐ to 3‐month variability associated with atmospheric moist processes over the western Pacific Ocean.