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The influence of climate feedbacks on regional hydrological changes under global warming
  • +4
  • David Bonan,
  • Nicole Feldl,
  • Nicholas Siler,
  • Jennifer E Kay,
  • Kyle Armour,
  • Ian Eisenman,
  • Gerard Roe
David Bonan
California Institute of Technology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Nicole Feldl
University of California, Santa Cruz
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Nicholas Siler
Oregon State University
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Jennifer E Kay
University of Colorado Boulder
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Kyle Armour
University of Washington
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Ian Eisenman
UC San Diego
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Gerard Roe
University of Washington
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Abstract

The influence of climate feedbacks on regional hydrological changes under warming is poorly understood. Here, a moist energy balance model (MEBM) with a Hadley Cell parameterization is used to isolate the influence of climate feedbacks on changes in zonal-mean precipitation-minus-evaporation (P-E) under greenhouse-gas forcing. It is shown that cloud feedbacks act to narrow bands of tropical P-E and increase P-E in the deep tropics. The surface-albedo feedback shifts the location of maximum tropical P-E and increases P-E in the polar regions. The intermodel spread in the P-E changes associated with feedbacks arises mainly from cloud feedbacks, with the lapse-rate and surface-albedo feedbacks playing important roles in the polar regions. The P-E change associated with cloud feedback locking in the MEBM is similar to that of a climate model with inactive cloud feedbacks. This work highlights the unique role that climate feedbacks play in causing deviations from the “wet-gets-wetter, dry-gets-drier” paradigm.
05 Oct 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
17 Oct 2023Published in ESS Open Archive