Climate Change: The Next Generation: 1st Contender for Scariest Animation: Northern Hemisphere Atmospheric Water Vapor Circulation

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

1st Contender for Scariest Animation: Northern Hemisphere Atmospheric Water Vapor Circulation

http://synoptic.envsci.rutgers.edu/site/sat/sat.php?sat=nhem&url=../imgs/wv_nhem_anim.gif

5 comments:

ljgeoff said...: Tenney, could you unpack this a little? There's a lot going on here, and I don't know enough about world weather systems to see what you're specifically pointing at. The two things I would be most concerned about would be equatorial drought and cyclonic storms in the arctic; is that what this is suggesting?; February 7, 2012 at 6:53 AM
susan said...: that frozen moment is indeed wild and weird. Thanks!; February 7, 2012 at 10:13 AM
Tenney Naumer said...: OK, as long as this pattern of circulation continues, hot air is being driven into the Arctic, melting back the sea ice (Kara Sea ice pretty much gone) at a time when normally that ice is growing.

Also, note that the water vapor that usually travels across the Atlantic into the Amazon is being sucked back across the Atlantic and going north.

All this warm water vapor is pushing out the cold Arctic air and further warming the Arctic.

The water vapor that would normally go to the Amazon and thence to the south is being sucked out, causing drought in the south.

So, what I see is more warm air going north that should have gone south, creating an imbalance between the two hemispheres. In fact, the Antarctic is showing negative temperature anomalies in a big way.; February 7, 2012 at 4:32 PM
Dale Lanan said...: Probability of an Arctic polar cloud cover surrounded by clear sky essentially circling the Earth followed by cloud cover again closer to the equator happening if it wasn't in response to human induced greenhouse gas releases seems like it should next to zero.
The idea S pole is going negative and N heat anomaly is increasing is hard to visualize. Perhaps more like a tug of war but N has Methane gas.; February 8, 2012 at 6:43 AM
Tenney Naumer said...: Hi Dale, thanks for commenting.

You can see the temperature anomalies here: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/map/images/fnl/sfctmpmer_01a_30frames.fnl.anim.html; February 11, 2012 at 3:39 PM