Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 42, Issue 24, Pages 10798-10806Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL066669
Keywords
detection and attribution; anthropogenic forcings
Categories
Funding
- Joint DECC/DEFRA Met Office Hadley Centre Climate Programme [GA01101]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Apart from global scale surface warming, anthropogenic forcings also lead to warming and thermal expansion of the lower atmosphere. Here we investigate these effects using the geopotential height at 500hPa, an indicator of the combined thermodynamic and dynamic climatic response to external forcings. We employ optimal fingerprinting, which uses information from reanalysis data sets and experiments with seven state-of-the-art climate models, to assess the role of anthropogenic and natural influences on changes in the geopotential height during the satellite era. A significant global increase in the annual and seasonal mean geopotential height due to human influence is detected, a result confirmed with four different reanalysis data sets. A more moderate increase in the annual mean associated with natural forcings is also detected. Our findings, consistent with previous detection and attribution studies of changes in temperature and sea level pressure, indicate the prominent role of human influence on some recent climatic changes.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available