IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v455y2008i7210d10.1038_nature07258.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Arctic warming aloft is data set dependent

Author

Listed:
  • Cecilia M. Bitz

    (408 Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysics Hall, University of Washington)

  • Qiang Fu

    (408 Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysics Hall, University of Washington)

Abstract

Arising from: R. G. Graversen, T. Mauritsen, M. Tjernström, E. Källén & G. Svensson Nature 451, 53–56 (2008)10.1038/nature06502 ; Graversen et al. reply Arctic sea ice and snow on land have retreated polewards at an alarming pace in the past few decades1. Such retreat locally amplifies surface warming through a positive feedback, which causes the Arctic surface to warm faster than the rest of the globe. In contrast, ice and snow retreat causes little warming in the atmosphere above when the stable winter atmosphere inhibits vertical heat exchange. We therefore find surprising the recent report by Graversen et al.2 in which they claim that recent Arctic atmospheric warming extends far deeper into the atmosphere than expected, and can even exceed the surface warming during the polar night. Using a different data set, we show that there is much less warming aloft in winter, consistent with the recent retreat of ice and snow, as well as recent changes in atmospheric heat transport.

Suggested Citation

  • Cecilia M. Bitz & Qiang Fu, 2008. "Arctic warming aloft is data set dependent," Nature, Nature, vol. 455(7210), pages 3-4, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:455:y:2008:i:7210:d:10.1038_nature07258
    DOI: 10.1038/nature07258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07258
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature07258?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:455:y:2008:i:7210:d:10.1038_nature07258. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.