Essential Site Maintenance: Authorea-powered sites will be updated circa 15:00-17:00 Eastern on Tuesday 5 November.
There should be no interruption to normal services, but please contact us at [email protected] in case you face any issues.

loading page

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]

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

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