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Influence of increasing surface humidity on winter warming at high altitudes through the 21st century
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Title
Influence of increasing surface humidity on winter warming at high altitudes through the 21st century
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ETD_1217
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http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.2/rucore10001600001.ETD.000051765
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eng
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theses
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Environmental Sciences
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(authority = ETD-LCSH)
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Mountain climate
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(authority = ETD-LCSH)
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Climatic changes
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(authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Global warming
Abstract
This dissertation examines the influence of low-level atmospheric humidity in mediating the rate of surface warming, particularly at high altitude regions, during the late 20th century and the 21st century. The focus is on observations and global climate model projections (IPCC SRES A1B scenario) for China, the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the San Juan Mountain (SJM) in southwest Colorado. For China, the analysis suggests large surface warming despite significant decreases in insolation until the middle of the 21st century. Both the past and future warming in China occurs primarily as a result of the lower and upper atmospheric water vapor feedbacks, triggered by the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gases, which in turn causes an increase in downward longwave radiation (DLR). For the TP and the SJM region, I find that increases in surface specific humidity (q) leads to relatively large increases in DLR. This effect is enhanced in colder months and at higher altitudes, and the winter warming in the TP is about twice the warming during other seasons. For the TP, the model shows that for the highest elevations the largest warming between 1950-2100 occurs during winter and spring. The increases in DLR influenced by increases in q during winter, and increases in absorbed solar radiation influenced by decreases in snow cover extent during spring are, in part, the reason for a large warming trend over the plateau. These two effects appear to produce the model’s elevation dependent warming trend. For the SJM region, the observations show that q has been increasing at more than 10% per decade from October through January between 1990-2005, when the region experienced the largest increases in surface temperatures. Moreover, only during these months do diurnal changes in humidity explain the large variability in the corresponding changes in temperature. The largest changes in DLR also appear to occur during these months. Large increases in DLR during January and December coincide with large increases in temperatures and, in part, indicate the causes for a large warming trend during these months.
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electronic resource
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xiii, 107 p. : ill.
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Ph.D.
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Includes bibliographical references (p. 103-106)
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by Imtiaz Rangwala
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Rangwala
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Imtiaz
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Imtiaz Rangwala
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Miller
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James
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chair
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James R Miller
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Broccoli
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Anthony
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Anthony J Broccoli
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Robinson
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David
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David A Robinson
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Xu
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Ming
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Ming Xu
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Rutgers University
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Graduate School - New Brunswick
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2008
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2008-10
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xx
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Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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rucore19991600001
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doi:10.7282/T3S75GJH
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ETD doctoral
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Rights
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
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Copyright protected
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Open
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Rangwala
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Imtiaz
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Imtiaz Rangwala
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Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
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I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
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