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Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Sea ice and atmospheric circulation shape the high-latitude lapse rate feedback

Journal Article · · npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
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Abstract Arctic amplification of anthropogenic climate change is widely attributed to the sea-ice albedo feedback, with its attendant increase in absorbed solar radiation, and to the effect of the vertical structure of atmospheric warming on Earth’s outgoing longwave radiation. The latter lapse rate feedback is subject, at high latitudes, to a myriad of local and remote influences whose relative contributions remain unquantified. The distinct controls on the high-latitude lapse rate feedback are here partitioned into “upper” and “lower” contributions originating above and below a characteristic climatological isentropic surface that separates the high-latitude lower troposphere from the rest of the atmosphere. This decomposition clarifies how the positive high-latitude lapse rate feedback over polar oceans arises primarily as an atmospheric response to local sea ice loss and is reduced in subpolar latitudes by an increase in poleward atmospheric energy transport. The separation of the locally driven component of the high-latitude lapse rate feedback further reveals how it and the sea-ice albedo feedback together dominate Arctic amplification as a coupled mechanism operating across the seasonal cycle.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344; SC0019407
OSTI ID:
1682372
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1708996
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--783239; 41; PII: 146
Journal Information:
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science, Journal Name: npj Climate and Atmospheric Science Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 3; ISSN 2397-3722
Publisher:
Springer NatureCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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