caa a22 4500 605472203 CHVBK 20210128100337.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20150701xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s00382-014-2441-9 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s00382-014-2441-9 The strength of the tropical inversion and its response to climate change in 18 CMIP5 models [Elektronische Daten] [Xin Qu, Alex Hall, Stephen Klein, Peter Caldwell] We examine the tropical inversion strength, measured by the estimated inversion strength (EIS), and its response to climate change in 18 models associated with phase 5 of the coupled model intercomparison project (CMIP5). While CMIP5 models generally capture the geographic distribution of observed EIS, they systematically underestimate it off the west coasts of continents, due to a warm bias in sea surface temperature. The negative EIS bias may contribute to the low bias in tropical low-cloud cover in the same models. Idealized perturbation experiments reveal that anthropogenic forcing leads directly to EIS increases, independent of "temperature-mediated” EIS increases associated with long-term oceanic warming. This fast EIS response to anthropogenic forcing is strongly impacted by nearly instantaneous continental warming. The temperature-mediated EIS change has contributions from both uniform and non-uniform oceanic warming. The substantial EIS increases in uniform oceanic warming simulations are due to warming with height exceeding the moist adiabatic lapse rate in tropical warm pools. EIS also increases in fully-coupled ocean-atmosphere simulations where $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 concentration is instantaneously quadrupled, due to both fast and temperature-mediated changes. The temperature-mediated EIS change varies with tropical warming in a nonlinear fashion: The EIS change per degree tropical warming is much larger in the early stage of the simulations than in the late stage, due to delayed warming in the eastern parts of the subtropical oceans. Given the importance of EIS in regulating tropical low-cloud cover, this suggests that the tropical low-cloud feedback may also be nonlinear . Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2014 Tropical inversion nationallicence EIS nationallicence Fast response nationallicence Temperature-mediated change nationallicence Qu Xin Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, PO Box 951565, 90095-1565, Los Angeles, CA, USA aut Hall Alex Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, PO Box 951565, 90095-1565, Los Angeles, CA, USA aut Klein Stephen Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mail Code L-103, PO Box 808, 94551, Livermore, CA, USA aut Caldwell Peter Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mail Code L-103, PO Box 808, 94551, Livermore, CA, USA aut Climate Dynamics Springer Berlin Heidelberg 45/1-2(2015-07-01), 375-396 0930-7575 45:1-2<375 2015 45 382 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2441-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2441-9 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Qu Xin Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, PO Box 951565, 90095-1565, Los Angeles, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Hall Alex Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of California, PO Box 951565, 90095-1565, Los Angeles, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Klein Stephen Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mail Code L-103, PO Box 808, 94551, Livermore, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Caldwell Peter Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Mail Code L-103, PO Box 808, 94551, Livermore, CA, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Climate Dynamics Springer Berlin Heidelberg 45/1-2(2015-07-01), 375-396 0930-7575 45:1-2<375 2015 45 382