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The objective of near-term climate prediction is to improve our foreknowledge, from years to a decade or more in advance, of impactful climate changes that can in general be attributed [...]

The Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is an ongoing coordinated international activity of numerical experimentation of unprecedented scope and impact on climate science. Its most recent phase, the fifth phase [...]

Data from the satellite-based Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) show that the total atmospheric moisture content over oceans has increased by 0.41 kg/[m.sup.2] per decade since 1988. Results from current climate models indicate that water vapor increases of this magnitude cannot be explained by climate noise alone. In a formal detection and attribution analysis using the pooled results from 22 different climate models, the simulated 'fingerprint' pattern of anthropogenically caused changes in water vapor is identifiable with high statistical confidence in the SSM/I data. Experiments in which forcing factors are varied individually suggest that this fingerprint 'match' is primarily due to human-caused increases in greenhouse gases and not to solar forcing or recovery from the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Our findings provide preliminary evidence of an emerging anthropogenic signal in the moisture content of earth's atmosphere. climate change | climate modeling | detection and attribution | water vapor

Previous research has identified links between changes in sea surface temperature (SST) and hurricane intensity. We use climate models to study the possible causes of SST changes in Atlantic and Pacific tropical cyclogenesis regions. The observed SST increases in these regions range from 0.32[degrees]C to 0.67[degrees]C over the 20th century. The 22 climate models examined here suggest that century-time-scale SST changes of this magnitude cannot be explained solely by unforced variability of the climate system. We employ model simulations of natural internal variability to make probabilistic estimates of the contribution of external forcing to observed SST changes. For the period 1906-2005, we find an 84% chance that external forcing explains at least 67% of observed SST increases in the two tropical cyclogenesis regions. Model '20th-century' simulations, with external forcing by combined anthropogenic and natural factors, are generally capable of replicating observed SST increases. In experiments in which forcing factors are varied individually rather than jointly, human-caused changes in greenhouse gases are the main driver of the 20th-century SST increases in both tropical cyclogenesis regions.

The Parallel Climate Model (PCM) has been used in the Accelerated Climate Prediction Initiative (ACPI) Program to simulate the global climate response to projected C[O.sub.2], sulfate, and other greenhouse gas forcing under a business-as-usual emissions scenario during the 21st century. In these runs, the oceans were initialized to 1995 conditions by a group from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other institutions. An ensemble of three model runs was then carried out to the year 2099 using the projected forcing. Atmospheric data from these runs were saved at 6-hourly intervals (hourly for certain critical fields) to support the ACPI objective of accurately modeling hydrological cycles over the western U.S. It is shown that the initialization to 1995 conditions partly removes the un-forced oceanic temperature and salinity drifts that occurred in the standard 20th century integration. The ACPI runs show a global surface temperature increase of 3-8[degrees]C over northern high-latitudes by the end of the 21st century, and 1-2[degrees]C over the oceans. This is generally within [+ or -] 0.1[degrees]C of model runs without the 1995 ocean initialization. The exception is in the Antarctic circumpolar ocean where surface air temperature is cooler in the ACPI run; however the ensemble scatter is large in this region. Although the difference in climate at the end of the 21st century is minimal between the ACPI runs and traditionally spun up runs, it might be larger for CGCMs with higher climate sensitivity or larger ocean drifts. Our results suggest that the effect of small errors in the oceans (such as those associated with climate drifts) on CGCM-simulated climate changes for the next 50-100 years may be negligible.

The tropopause represents the boundary between the troposphere and stratosphere and is marked by large changes in the thermal, dynamical, and chemical structure of the atmosphere (1-3). Increases in tropopause [...], Observations indicate that the height of the tropopause--the boundary between the stratosphere and troposphere--has increased by several hundred meters since 1979. Comparable increases are evident in climate model experiments. The latter show that human-induced changes in ozone and well-mixed greenhouse gases account for ~80% of the simulated rise in tropopause height over 1979-1999. Their primary contributions are through cooling of the stratosphere (caused by ozone) and warming of the troposphere (caused by well-mixed greenhouse gases). A model-predicted fingerprint of tropopause height changes is statistically detectable in two different observational ('reanalysis') data sets. This positive detection result allows us to attribute overall tropopause height changes to a combination of anthropogenic and natural external forcings, with the anthropogenic component predominating.

Since 1979, atmospheric microwave emissions have been monitored by the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) flown on polar-orbiting satellites (1). Satellite temperature measurements are mass-weighted averages of the microwave emissions from [...], Two independent analyses of the same satellite-based radiative emissions data yield tropospheric temperature trends that differ by 0.1°C per decade over 1979 to 2001. The troposphere warms appreciably in one satellite data set, while the other data set shows little overall change. These satellite data uncertainties are important in studies seeking to identify human effects on climate. A model-predicted 'fingerprint' of combined anthropogenic and natural effects is statistically detectable only in the satellite data set with a warming troposphere. Our findings show that claimed inconsistencies between model predictions and satellite tropospheric temperature data (and between the latter and surface data) may be an artifact of data uncertainties.

Interdecadal variability is investigated in a 300 year run of the Parallel Climate Model, a global coupled atmosphere-land-ocean-sea ice model. The model simulates El Niño variability of realistic magnitude and is found to produce interdecadal characteristics similar to those observed, both in frequency, spatial patterns and amplitude. Modulation of Australian rainfall on interdecadal time scales is similar to observed and is found to have contributions from both the modulation of ENSO, changes in the position of the Walker circulation and variations in western Pacific SSTs. A slackening of the equatorial Pacific thermocline slope is associated with diminished ENSO variability during interdecadal periods of positive tropical Pacific SSTs. These interdecadal changes to ENSO and shifts in the position of the Walker circulation are physical mechanisms that contribute to the weakened correlations between the SOI and Australian climate during interdecadal periods of positive tropical Pacific SSTs. Warm anomalies in the western Pacific also contribute to a decrease in Australian rainfall in the model on interdecadal time scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interactions involving various time and space scales, both within the tropics and between the tropics and midlatitudes, are ubiquitous in the climate system. We propose a conceptual framework for understanding such interactions whereby longer time scales and larger space scales set the base state for processes on shorter time scales and smaller space scales, which in turn have an influence back on the longer time scales and larger space scales in a continuum of process-related interactions. Though not intended to be comprehensive, we do cite examples from the literature to provide evidence for the validity of this framework. Decadal time scale base states of the coupled climate system set the context for the manifestation of interannual time scales (El Nino/Southern Oscillation, ENSO and tropospheric biennial oscillation, TBO) which are influenced by and interact with the annual cycle and seasonal time scales. Those base states in turn influence the large-scale coupled processes involved with intraseasonal and submonthly time scales, tied to interactions within the tropics and extratropics, and tropical–midlatitude teleconnections. All of these set the base state for processes on the synoptic and mesoscale and regional/local space scales. Events at those relatively short time scales and small space scales may then affect the longer time scale and larger space scale processes in turn, reaching back out to submonthly, intraseasonal, seasonal, annual, TBO, ENSO and decadal. Global coupled models can capture some elements of the decadal, ENSO, TBO, annual and seasonal time scales with the associated global space scales. However, coupled models are less successful at simulating phenomena at subseasonal and shorter time scales with hemispheric and smaller space scales. In the context of the proposed conceptual framework, the synergistic interactions of the time and space scales suggest that a high priority must be placed on improved simulations of all of the time and space scales in the climate system. This is particularly important for the subseasonal time scales and hemispheric and smaller space scales, which are not well simulated at present, to improve the prospects of successfully forecasting phenomena beyond the synoptic scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, El Nino-like events simulated in global coupled climate models have had reduced amplitude compared to observations. Here, El Nino-like phenomena are compared in ten sensitivity experiments using two recent global coupled models. These models have various combinations of horizontal and vertical ocean resolution, ocean physics, and atmospheric model resolution. It is demonstrated that the lower the value of the ocean background vertical diffusivity, the greater the amplitude of El Nino variability which is related primarily to a sharper equatorial thermocline. Among models with low background vertical diffusivity, stronger equatorial zonal wind stress is associated with relatively higher amplitude El Nino variability along with more realistic east–west sea surface temperature (SST) gradient along the equator. The SST seasonal cycle in the eastern tropical Pacific has too much of a semiannual component with a double intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in all experiments, and thus does not affect, nor is it affected by, the amplitude of El Nino variability. Systematic errors affecting the spatial variability of El Nino in the experiments are characterized by the eastern equatorial Pacific cold tongue regime extending too far westward into the warm pool. The time scales of interannual variability (as represented by time series of Nino3 SSTs) show significant power in the 3–4 year ENSO band and 2–2.5 year tropospheric biennial oscillation (TBO) band in the model experiments. The TBO periods in the models agree well with the observations, while the ENSO periods are near the short end of the range of 3–6 years observed during the period 1950–94. The close association between interannual variability of equatorial eastern Pacific SSTs and large-scale SST patterns is represented by significant correlations between Nino3 time series and the PC time series of the first EOFs of near-global SSTs in the models and observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]