Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Nov 5;110(45):18087-91. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1310344110. Epub 2013 Sep 30.
We show here that stratospheric water vapor variations play an important role in the evolution of our climate. This comes from analysis of observations showing that stratospheric water vapor increases with tropospheric temperature, implying the existence of a stratospheric water vapor feedback. We estimate the strength of this feedback in a chemistry-climate model to be +0.3 W/(m(2)⋅K), which would be a significant contributor to the overall climate sensitivity. One-third of this feedback comes from increases in water vapor entering the stratosphere through the tropical tropopause layer, with the rest coming from increases in water vapor entering through the extratropical tropopause.
我们在这里展示了平流层水汽变化在气候演变中起着重要作用。这是通过分析观测结果得出的，这些结果表明平流层水汽随着对流层温度的升高而增加，这意味着存在平流层水汽反馈。我们在一个化学气候模型中估计这种反馈的强度为+0.3 W/（m²·K），这将是对整体气候敏感性的重要贡献。这种反馈的三分之一来自于通过热带对流层顶进入平流层的水汽增加，其余部分来自于通过亚热带对流层顶进入平流层的水汽增加。
