Radiative Constraints on the Extratropical Storm Tracks under Climate Change

Susan Solomon has made seminal contributions to our understanding of atmospheric chemistry and the role of various chemical processes in climate change. In this talk I will highlight new work that indicates the key role of one such process in governing the depth and latitude of the extratropical storm tracks under climate change. I will argue that the depth of the extratropical troposphere and the latitude of extratropical wave driving are both constrained by the radiative effects of water vapor and the thermodynamic constraints placed on water vapor concentrations. The results suggest that the top of extratropical storms should remain at roughly the same temperature, and thus become deeper, under global warming. They also imply that the latitude of the extratropical storm tracks should shift in response to changes in the amplitude of tropospheric radiative cooling. Implications for climate feedbacks and linkages to Susan Solomon’s work on water vapor will be discussed.