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Southern Hemisphere Climate Change Professor Matthew England Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory School of Mathematics, Faculty of Science The University of New South Wales
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Outline Observed 20 th Century changes in the Southern Hemisphere climate system »Temperature »Rainfall »Land ice, ice shelves, and sea-ice »Ocean properties »Winds and extratropical weather systems Projected changes
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Increase in Atmospheric CO 2 Since the Beginning of the Industrial Era
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CO 2 Concentration is Rising 190 290 1959 2004 10001200 1400 16001800 2000
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Radiative forcing in year 2000 relative to pre-industrial
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NH air temperatures since 1000 A.D.
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Is the Southern Ocean changing? … observations Larsson-B Ice Shelf Collapse 31 January to 7 March 2002 http://nsidc.org/iceshelves/larsenb2002/animation.html
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Oppenheimer (Nature 1998) West Antarctic Ice Sheet
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Twentieth Century Land-Ice Changes Davis et al., Vaughan; Science, 2005
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Melting of the Greenland Ice-sheet
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Arctic Sea-ice melting 1990 2000 ~10% decrease in sea-ice per decade
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Today’s Climate Ice Age Climate
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Antarctic Bottom Water
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Rintoul 2006
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0.017 psu Rintoul 2006
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.008.009.015 Rintoul 2006
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Causes of fresher shelf water Increased glacial ice melt? More precipitation? Less sea ice formation? Change in winds and ocean circulation? Davis et al., Vaughan; Science, 2005
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Wong et al., 1999 Intermediate depth waters in both hemispheres have become cooler and fresher in recent decades.
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Figure 3 from Gille, S. T., 2002. Warming of the Southern Ocean since the 1950s. Science, 295, 1275-1277. Temperature trends between 700 and 1100 m depth from ALACE floats. Observations of temperature at intermediate depths show a greater than expected warming at high latitudes and a cooling at mid-latitudes of the Southern Ocean over the last 50 years (Gille 2002).
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Australian rainfall trend, 1950 – present day
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Australian temperature trend, 1950 – present day
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Changing Southern Hemisphere climate: the Southern Annular Mode Sen Gupta & England 2006
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Southern Annular Mode
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Roaring Forties / Furious Fifties
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Southern Annular Mode
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… trend due to ozone delpletion & greenhouse gas increases
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Northern Annular Mode
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Regression of the Southern Annular Mode onto rainfall Model ‘Observed’ Sen Gupta & England 2006
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July Zonal Wind (200 hPa) 1949-1968 1975-1994 difference Pandora Hope IOCI
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How much will the Southern Hemisphere change in the future? … models
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Climate Modelling Governing equations Forcing conditions Initial conditions Model output
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Models of the ocean and atmosphere Solve governing equations over a discrete grid Use (sparse) observations in forcing functions Integrate solutions forward in time Assess simulation vs. observed fields
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1000 20001500 500 Year The Past and the Future Instrumental Data Proxy Reconstructions Model Simulations 2100 5.8 IPCC high and low projection 1.4 Spörer minimum Maunder minimum Dalton minimum 0 0.2 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 0.4 ∆T -0.8
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Annual-mean temperature change predicted for ~ the year 2050 in the GFDL coupled climate model experiment (Manabe et al. 1989). Climate change appears to be buffered by the Southern Ocean THC
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Annual mean change in temperature (colour shading) and its range (isolines) (Unit: °C) for the SRES scenario A2, showing the period 2071 to 2100 relative to the period 1961 to 1990. Annual-mean temperature change predicted for 2070-2100 in IPCC Third Assessment Report models
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Climate Change simulation to year 2054
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Figure 1. Model Simulation of Trend in Hurricanes (from Knutson et al, 2004)Knutson et al, 2004 CONTROL 2050
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The Southern Hemisphere, like the antipodes, have undergone substantial climate change in the past century A manifestation of climate change can be easily found in Southern Hemisphere air temperatures, rainfall, ocean properties, land-ice, sea-level, winds, and storm tracks Models suggest these changes will continue for centuries even with relatively aggressive response strategies CONCLUSIONS
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Southern Hemisphere Climate Change Professor Matthew England Climate and Environmental Dynamics Laboratory School of Mathematics, Faculty of Science The University of New South Wales
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