DOI: 10.1007/s00382-014-2147-z
Scopus记录号: 2-s2.0-84939881252
论文题名: Croll revisited: Why is the northern hemisphere warmer than the southern hemisphere?
作者: Kang S.M. ; Seager R. ; Frierson D.M.W. ; Liu X.
刊名: Climate Dynamics
ISSN: 9307575
出版年: 2015
卷: 44, 期: 2017-05-06 起始页码: 1457
结束页码: 1472
语种: 英语
英文关键词: Cross-equatorial ocean transport
; Energy budget
; Greenhouse trapping
; Hemispheric temperature difference
英文摘要: The question of why, in the annual-mean, the northern hemisphere (NH) is warmer than the southern hemisphere (SH) is addressed, revisiting an 1870 paper by James Croll. We first show that ocean is warmer than land in general which, acting alone, would make the SH, with greater ocean fraction, warmer. Croll was aware of this and thought it was caused by greater specific humidity and greenhouse trapping over ocean than over land. However, for any given temperature, it is shown that greenhouse trapping is actually greater over land. Instead, oceans are warmer than land because of the smaller surface albedo. However, hemispheric differences in planetary albedo are negligible because the impact of differences in land-sea fraction are offset by the SH ocean and land reflecting more than their NH counterparts. In the absence of a role for albedo differences it is shown that, in agreement with Croll, northward cross-equatorial ocean heat transport (X-OHT) is critical for the warmer NH. This is examined in a simple box model based on the energy budget of each hemisphere. The hemispheric difference forced by X-OHT is enhanced by the positive water vapor-greenhouse feedback, and is partly compensated by the southward atmospheric energy transport. Due to uncertainties in the ocean data, a range of X-OHT is considered. A X-OHT of larger than 0.5 PW is needed to explain the warmer NH solely by X-OHT. For smaller X-OHT, a larger basic state greenhouse trapping in the NH, conceived as imposed by continental geometry, needs to be imposed. Numerical experiments with a GCM coupled to a slab ocean provide evidence that X-OHT is fundamentally important in determining the hemispheric differences in temperature. Therefore, despite some modifications to his theory, analysis of modern data confirms Croll’s 140-year-old theory that the warmer NH is partly because of northward X-OHT. © 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. 资助项目: NRF, National Science Foundation
; NSF, National Science Foundation
; NOAA, National Science Foundation
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资源类型: 期刊论文
标识符: http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/54202
Appears in Collections: 过去全球变化的重建
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作者单位: School of Urban and Environmental Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, EB2 Rm801-2, UNIST-gil50, Eonyang-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, South Korea; Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, United States; Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States
Recommended Citation:
Kang S.M.,Seager R.,Frierson D.M.W.,et al. Croll revisited: Why is the northern hemisphere warmer than the southern hemisphere?[J]. Climate Dynamics,2015-01-01,44(2017-05-06)