Advances in Earth Science ›› 2013, Vol. 28 ›› Issue (11): 1276-1282.

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Impact of the Ice-albedo Feedback on Meridional Temperature Gradient of Northern Hemisphere

Xie Yongkun, Liu Yuzhi, Huang Jianping, Wang Guoyin   

  1. Key Laboratory for Semi-Arid Climate Change of the Ministry of Education, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
  • Received:2013-03-14 Online:2013-11-10 Published:2013-11-10

Xie Yongkun,Liu Yuzhi,Huang Jianping,Wang Guoyin. Impact of the Ice-albedo Feedback on Meridional Temperature Gradient of Northern Hemisphere[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2013, 28(11): 1276-1282.

This paper analyzes the variation of meridional temperature gradient (MTG) over mid-latitude and high-latitude of Northern Hemisphere continents during last 100 years using observational data. It is found that MTG over high-latitude of Northern Hemisphere continents has an increasing trend, but the simulation results of CMIP5 models show a decreasing trend. Results of this study showed the decrease of MTG over the high-latitude continents of Northern Hemisphere calculated by CMIP5 historical simulations mainly because the models of CMIP5 exaggerated ice-albedo feedback over high-latitude regions. A series of simulation results by energy balance climate models showed that ice-albedo feedback amplified the magnitude of warming in the global warming induced only by carbon dioxide, and the magnitude of warming in highlatitude was much larger than that in low-latitude regions. Along with global warming, ice-albedo feedback has little influence on MTG in low-latitude, but can induce the decrease of MTG in high-latitude regions.
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