The Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has unveiled spatiotemporal variations in the response time of tropospheric temperature to human activities since the Industrial Revolution. The recent findings of this research have been published online in Environmental Research Letters.
Utilizing tropospheric temperature data from multiple models output by CMIP6, the study systematically analyzed the spatiotemporal differences in the response time of tropospheric temperature to human activities since 1850. The results indicate that surface temperature change signals do not directly reflect the timing of TOE (the emergence time of internal variability noise in the climate system). The TOE of tropospheric temperature exhibits significant latitude dependence, showing an "M"-shaped distribution from the Antarctic to the Arctic. That is, the temperature signal responding to human activities first appears in low-latitude regions, followed by high-latitude regions, with mid-latitude regions showing the latest response. With increasing altitude, the TOE in tropical regions advances continuously, demonstrating the dependence of temperature change on altitude.
The study also discusses the changing characteristics and mechanisms of TOE in some typical regions. It points out that the equatorial eastern Pacific region is heavily influenced by the internal variability of the climate system controlled by ENSO, leading to a TOE in various atmospheric layers that is 10 to 20 years later than that in the warm pool region of the equatorial western Pacific. Although the start times of high carbon emissions differ significantly among China, the United States, and the European Union (27 countries), the TOE in temperature among them is similar.
Global Distribution of Linear Trends, Signals, Noises, and TOE (Time of Emergence of the Signal of Temperature Response to Human Activities) in the Annual Mean Temperature Changes of Different Layers of the Troposphere from 1850 to 2014, Obtained from the CMIP6 Multi-Model Ensemble Average.
Related Paper Information: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad34e6
