edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26517 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T19:28:43.327000 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7jw8jwc https://doi.org/10.17874/800dee57d13 https Related Report #1 SPARC Report No. 10, WCRP Report 6/2021 Stratospheric water vapor affecting atmospheric circulation 2023-07-03T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7jw8jwc https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39559-2 Charlesworth, E. author Plöger, F. author Birner, T. author Baikhadzhaev, R. author Abalos, M. author Abraham, N. L. author Akiyoshi, H. author Bekki, S. author Dennison, F. author Jöckel, P. author Keeble, J. author Kinnison, Douglas E. author Morgenstern, O. author Plummer, D. author Rozanov, E. author Strode, S. author Zeng, G. author Egorova, T. author Riese, M. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Water vapor plays an important role in many aspects of the climate system, by affecting radiation, cloud formation, atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. Even the low stratospheric water vapor content provides an important climate feedback, but current climate models show a substantial moist bias in the lowermost stratosphere. Here we report crucial sensitivity of the atmospheric circulation in the stratosphere and troposphere to the abundance of water vapor in the lowermost stratosphere. We show from a mechanistic climate model experiment and inter-model variability that lowermost stratospheric water vapor decreases local temperatures, and thereby causes an upward and poleward shift of subtropical jets, a strengthening of the stratospheric circulation, a poleward shift of the tropospheric eddy-driven jet and regional climate impacts. The mechanistic model experiment in combination with atmospheric observations further shows that the prevailing moist bias in current models is likely caused by the transport scheme, and can be alleviated by employing a less diffusive Lagrangian scheme. The related effects on atmospheric circulation are of similar magnitude as climate change effects. Hence, lowermost stratospheric water vapor exerts a first order effect on atmospheric circulation and improving its representation in models offers promising prospects for future research. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation