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Antarctic winter tropospheric warming—the potential role of polar stratospheric clouds, a sensitivity study

  1. T. A. Lachlan-Cope1,*,
  2. W. M. Connolley1,
  3. J. Turner1,
  4. H. Roscoe1,
  5. G. J. Marshall1,
  6. S. R. Colwell1,
  7. M. Höpfner2,
  8. W. Ingram3,†

Article first published online: 20 OCT 2009

DOI: 10.1002/asl.237

Issue

Atmospheric Science Letters

Atmospheric Science Letters

Volume 10, Issue 4, pages 262–266, October/December 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

Lachlan-Cope, T. A., Connolley, W. M., Turner, J., Roscoe, H., Marshall, G. J., Colwell, S. R., Höpfner, M. and Ingram, W. (2009), Antarctic winter tropospheric warming—the potential role of polar stratospheric clouds, a sensitivity study. Atmosph. Sci. Lett., 10: 262–266. doi: 10.1002/asl.237

Author Information

  1. 1

    British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK

  2. 2

    Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Karlsruhe, Germany

  3. 3

    Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford and Hadley Centre, Met Office, Exeter, UK

  1. †

    The contribution of W. Ingram was written in the course of his employment at the Met Office, UK and is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

*British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.

  1. †

    The contribution of W. Ingram was written in the course of his employment at the Met Office, UK and is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 14 DEC 2009
  2. Article first published online: 20 OCT 2009
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 9 AUG 2009
  4. Manuscript Revised: 6 AUG 2009
  5. Manuscript Received: 20 JAN 2009

Funded by

  • Met Office's Integrated Climate Programme

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Keywords:

  • polar meteorology;
  • polar stratospheric clouds;
  • climate change

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, Antarctic mid-tropospheric temperatures in winter have increased by 0.5 K per decade, the largest regional tropospheric warming observed. Over this period, amounts of polar stratospheric cloud(PSC) have also increased, as rising CO2 concentrations cooled the stratosphere. By imposing an idealisation of these increases in PSC within the radiation scheme of an atmosphere-only general circulation model, we find that they could have contributed to the observed warming. The present generation of global climate models do not properly represent PSCs, and so these results demonstrate the need to improve the representation of PSCs. Copyright © 2009 Royal Meteorological Society and Crown Copyright

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