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- Title
Projected Changes in Mountain Precipitation Under CO<sub>2</sub>‐Induced Warmer Climate.
- Authors
Kad, Pratik; Ha, Kyung‐Ja; Lee, Sun‐Seon; Chu, Jung‐Eun
- Abstract
Mountains play a vital role in shaping regional and global climate, altering atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns. To this end, identifying projected changes in mountain precipitation is significantly challenging due to topographic complexity. This study explains how mountain precipitation could respond to rising greenhouse gases. Using a series of century‐long fully coupled high‐resolution simulations conducted with the Community Earth System Model, we aim to disentangle future changes in mountain precipitation in response to atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) perturbations. Our research findings indicate that the warming observed in global mountains is more pronounced when compared to the mean warming rates experienced globally and in the ocean under elevated CO2. We identify five low‐latitude mountain ranges with elevation‐dependent precipitation response, including New Guinea, East Africa, Eastern Himalayas, Central America, and Central Andes. Those mountains are expected to have a mixture of increasing and decreasing precipitation in response to CO2‐induced warming, especially over the summit and steep topography. To elucidate the mechanisms controlling future changes in mountain precipitation, we propose "Orographic moisture omega feedback" in which an increase in low‐level relative humidity enhances local precipitation by strengthening the upward motion through moist processes for the wetting response and vice versa for the drying response. The effects of Mountain precipitation changes can be extended to hydrology and could lead to significant consequences for human societies and ecosystems. Plain Language Summary: Recently, Mountain warming with increasing greenhouse warming has taken attention. However, predicting changes in mountain rainfall is hard and limitedly explored. There is a need to connect predominately idealized studies of change in orographic precipitation with warming to State‐of‐the‐art global climate model simulation (GCM). Therefore, we ran experiment simulations to study how mountain rainfall will change in the future due to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. The impact of warming on mountain precipitation is complex and could result in a combination of results, such as increased and decreased precipitation. To our knowledge, this is the first kind of study that connects the change in mountain precipitation with future greenhouse warming using a 25 km high‐resolution GCM. This study found that the changes in rainfall are expected in high‐elevation mountains located in low‐latitude regions with steep slopes. This analysis concentrates on five major mountain ranges: New Guinea, East Africa, the Himalayas, Central America, and Central Andes. Furthermore, the feedback mechanism could explain how low‐level humidity affects Mountain rainfall and atmospheric convection. By studying mountain meteorology, we can gain insights into the complex interactions between mountains and the atmosphere, contributing to the overall understanding of our earth system. Key Points: This study uses a high‐resolution model experiment to explain how mountain precipitation could respond to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrationProjected precipitation changes are dominated over low‐latitude mountains, especially the summit and steep topographyWe propose a mechanism, "Orographic moisture omega feedback," that explains the unprecedented anomalous changes in the mountain climate
- Subjects
NEW Guinea (Island); EAST Africa; CENTRAL America; ATMOSPHERIC carbon dioxide; CLIMATE change models; METEOROLOGICAL precipitation; GLOBAL warming; RAINFALL; MOUNTAIN soils; HUMIDITY
- Publication
Earth's Future, 2023, Vol 11, Issue 10, p1
- ISSN
2328-4277
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2023EF003886