Identification

Title

Precipitation over a wide range of climates simulated with comprehensive GCMs

Abstract

Idealized general circulation models (GCMs) suggest global-mean precipitation ceases to increase with warming in hot climates because evaporation is limited by the available solar radiation at the surface. We investigate the extent to which this generalizes in comprehensive GCMs. We find that in the Community Atmosphere Model, global-mean precipitation increases approximately linearly with global-mean surface temperatures up to about 330 K, where it peaks at 5 mm day-1. Beyond 330 K, global-mean precipitation decreases substantially despite increasing surface temperatures because of increased atmospheric shortwave absorption by water vapor, which decreases the shortwave radiation available for evaporation at the surface. Precipitation decreases in the tropics and subtropics but continues to increase in the extratropics because of continuously strengthening poleward moisture transport. Precipitable water increases everywhere, resulting in longer water-vapor residence times and implying more episodic precipitation. Other GCMs indicate global-mean precipitation might exhibit a smaller maximum rate and begin to decrease at lower surface temperatures.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7d50s6s

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-08-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact