Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Analysis of snow feedbacks in 14 general circulation models

1994; American Geophysical Union; Volume: 99; Issue: D10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1029/94jd01633

2156-2202

David A. Randall, R. D. Cess, Jean‐Pierre Blanchet, S. Chalita, Robert Colman, D. A. Dazlich, Anthony D. Del Genio, E. Keup, Andrew A. Lacis, Hervé Le Treut, Xin‐Zhong Liang, B. J. McAvaney, J.-F. Mahfouf, V. P. Meleshko, Jean‐Jacques Morcrette, P. M. Norris, G. L. Potter, L. Rikus, E. Roeckner, J.‐F. Royer, Ulrich Schlese, Dmitry Sheinin, Andrei Sokolov, Karl E. Taylor, R. T. Wetherald, Isamu Yagai, M.-H. Zhang,

Climate variability and models

Snow feedbacks produced by 14 atmospheric general circulation models have been analyzed through idealized numerical experiments. Included in the analysis is an investigation of the surface energy budgets of the models. Negative or weak positive snow feedbacks occurred in some of the models, while others produced strong positive snow feedbacks. These feedbacks are due not only to melting snow, but also to increases in boundary temperature, changes in air temperature, changes in water vapor, and changes in cloudiness. As a result, the net response of each model is quite complex. We analyze in detail the responses of one model with a strong positive snow feedback and another with a weak negative snow feedback. Some of the models include a temperature dependence of the snow albedo, and this has significantly affected the results.