Extended Abstract (108K)4.1
Enhanced Climatic Warming over the Tibetan Plateau Due to Double CO2: A Model Study
Baode Chen, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD; and W. C. Chao and X. Liu
The NCAR Regional Climate Model version 2 (RegCM2) is used to investigate the enhanced climatic warming in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) due to double CO2. With the RegCM2 driven by time-dependent lateral fields from output of the NCAR Climate System Model (CSM), two experiments, a 1-year present-day run and 1-year doubled CO2 run, have been conducted. A remarkable elevation-dependency is found in the simulated surface temperature change, i.e. more pronounced warming at high elevation than low elevation, especially so in the winter and spring seasons. This result is consistent with the observational study. From analysis of surface energy budget the enhanced warming in the southern TP where the strongest topography gradient is located and intensive snowfall occurred is caused by the snow-albedo feedback. However the soil moisture change plays a key role in the northern TP where the topography is rather flat and little snow was found.
Session 4, Regional Climate Modeling
Monday, 14 January 2002, 3:30 PM-5:15 PM
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