Williams et al. (2025) Sea‐Surface Temperature Patterns, Radiative Cooling, and Hydrological Sensitivity

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-12-04
• Authors: Andrew I. L. Williams, Nadir Jeevanjee
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl117734

Research Groups

Not specified in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study connects clear-sky longwave radiative cooling to tropical sea-surface temperature patterns, explaining why hydrological sensitivity is approximately 25% larger in uniform warming scenarios compared to abrupt-4xCO2 runs due to differing tropical clear-sky longwave radiative cooling changes.

Objective

• To explain the discrepancy in hydrological sensitivity between uniform warming and abrupt-4xCO2 scenarios by linking clear-sky longwave radiative cooling, a key component of hydrological sensitivity, to sea-surface temperature patterns in the tropics.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with a specific focus on tropical regions and areas of tropical convection.
• Temporal Scale: Climate change timescales, comparing long-term responses in different warming scenarios.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Global climate models (used for uniform warming and abrupt-4xCO2 experiments).
• Data sources: Theoretical insights and outputs from global climate model experiments.

Main Results

• Global-mean precipitation exhibits a positive hydrological sensitivity to global-mean surface temperature increases.
• Hydrological sensitivity is influenced by the pattern of warming, not just global-mean warming.
• Hydrological sensitivity is approximately 25% greater in uniform warming scenarios compared to abrupt-4xCO2 runs.
• This difference is quantitatively attributed to distinct changes in clear-sky longwave radiative cooling within the tropics.
• These changes in tropical clear-sky longwave radiative cooling are driven by varying rates of sea-surface temperature warming in regions of tropical convection.

Contributions

• Provides a theoretical framework connecting clear-sky longwave radiative cooling to tropical sea-surface temperature patterns, crucial for understanding hydrological sensitivity.
• Explains and quantitatively attributes the approximately 25% difference in hydrological sensitivity between uniform warming and abrupt-4xCO2 climate model experiments.
• Highlights the importance of tropical SST warming patterns in modulating global hydrological sensitivity.

Funding

Not specified in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Williams2025SeaSurface,
  author = {Williams, Andrew I. L. and Jeevanjee, Nadir},
  title = {Sea‐Surface Temperature Patterns, Radiative Cooling, and Hydrological Sensitivity},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl117734},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl117734}
}