On the Interplay Between Convective Aggregation, Surface Temperature Gradients, and Climate Sensitivity.

ABSTRACT: This study explores the extent to which convective aggregation interacts with sea surface temperature (SST) and affects climate sensitivity. For this purpose, radiative-convective equilibrium simulations are run with a general circulation model coupled to an ocean mixed layer, and several types of perturbations are imposed to the ocean-atmosphere system. Convective aggregation turns out to be much more sensitive to temperature in coupled experiments than in prescribed SST experiments. But changes in convective aggregation induced by a doubling of the CO₂ concentration are always smaller than changes associated with the transition from a non-aggregated to an aggregated state. If aggregation changes were acting alone, they would exert a strong negative feedback on global mean surf

SUBMITTER: Coppin D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6472628 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature