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Soil moisture-atmosphere coupling accelerates global warming.

ABSTRACT: Soil moisture-atmosphere coupling (SA) amplifies greenhouse gas-driven global warming via changes in surface heat balance. The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project projects an acceleration in SA-driven warming due to the 'warmer climate - drier soil' feedback, which continuously warms the globe and thereby exerts an acceleration effect on global warming. The projection shows that SA-driven warming exceeds 0.5 °C over extratropical landmasses by the end of the 21st Century. The likelihood of extreme high temperatures will additionally increase by about 10% over the entire globe (excluding Antarctica) and more than 30% over large parts of North America and Europe under the high-emission scenario. This demonstrates the high sensitivity of SA to climate change, in which SA can exceed the natural range of climate variability and play a non-linear warming component role on the globe.

SUBMITTER: Qiao L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10427638 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Soil moisture-atmosphere coupling accelerates global warming.

Qiao Liang L Zuo Zhiyan Z Zhang Renhe R Piao Shilong S Xiao Dong D Zhang Kaiwen K

Nature communications 20230815 1

Soil moisture-atmosphere coupling (SA) amplifies greenhouse gas-driven global warming via changes in surface heat balance. The Scenario Model Intercomparison Project projects an acceleration in SA-driven warming due to the 'warmer climate - drier soil' feedback, which continuously warms the globe and thereby exerts an acceleration effect on global warming. The projection shows that SA-driven warming exceeds 0.5 °C over extratropical landmasses by the end of the 21st Century. The likelihood of ex ...[more]

PMID: 37582806

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