Response of water vapor to interannual variations of SST: Results from NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM2)

Conference · Sat Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:535492

Sun, De-Zheng ^[1]

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1. National Center For Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)

This paper very briefly documents the response of water vapor to interannual changes in sea surface temperature (SST) in two of the most frequently used climate models: the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) community climate model (CCM2) and the GFDL spectral model (R30). The corresponding results from radiosonde data are also presented for reference. A simple linear regression model is used to quantify the response of water vapor to changes in SST in the two simulations. Except for the negative response of water vapor over Australia, CCM2 simulates the major characteristics in the horizontal structure of the water vapor response shown in the radiosonde data. The negative response of water over Australia is also not well simulated by GFDL R30. In addition, GFDL R30 significantly underestimates the positive response over the Indian Ocean. The horizontal contrasts between the negative response over the western Pacific and the positive response over the central and eastern Pacific in the model simulations are larger than in the radiosonde data. The negative response in the subtropical region in CCM2 is more pronounced than in R30. Averaged over the tropics, CCM2 has a larger water vapor response in both the boundary layer and the upper troposphere than R30. The correlations between variations of water vapor in the upper troposphere and those at the surface level are also stronger in CCM2 than in R30. 2 refs., 5 figs.

• OSTI ID: 535492
• Report Number(s): CONF-970207--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
C CODES
CLIMATE MODELS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
DATA COVARIANCES
G CODES
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
SEAS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION
WATER VAPOR