Climate sensitivity study with energy balance models
Huang, Jin
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/21016
Description
Title
Climate sensitivity study with energy balance models
Author(s)
Huang, Jin
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Bowman, Kenneth P.
Department of Study
Atmospheric Science
Discipline
Atmospheric Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Physical Oceanography
Paleoecology
Physics, Atmospheric Science
Language
eng
Abstract
In this thesis, the sensitivity of the Earth's climate is studied by modeling past climatic variations with two-dimensional seasonal energy balance model. This thesis consists of two parts. The first part is a study of the interaction between the seasonal cycle and the small ice cap instability, which is a possible mechanism for the initiation of glaciation in the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere. Results from a two-dimensional energy balance model with a realistic land-ocean distribution show that the small ice cap instability exists in the southern hemisphere, but not in the northern hemisphere. A series of experiments with a one-dimensional energy balance model with idealized geography is used to study the roles of the seasonal cycle and the land-ocean distribution. The results indicate that the seasonal cycle and land-ocean distribution can influence the strength of the albedo feedback, which is responsible for the small ice cap instability, through two factors: the temperature gradient and the amplitude of the seasonal cycle.
The second part of this thesis is a study of the CO$\sb2$-climate feedback and its possible role in the 41 kyr sea surface temperature oscillation during the Matuyama chron (2.4 to 0.7 Myr BP). The CO$\sb2$-climate feedback is parameterized as an internal longwave radiation-polar temperature feedback in the energy balance model. Other physical processes are treated as boundary conditions. It is found that the CO$\sb2$-climate feedback can increase climate sensitivity to orbital parameters, especially to the obliquity changes, which have a 41 kyr cycle. The model results indicate that the CO$\sb2$-climate feedback is one of possible mechanisms for the dominant 41 kyr climate change during the Matuyama. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)
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