The impact of doubled CO2 on the energetics and hydrologic processes of mid-latitude transient eddies

The Northern Hemisphere winter (DJF) stationary eddy response of a general circulation model (GCM) to a doubling of atmospheric CO₂ is simulated with a linear steady state model as a response to anomalies in diabatic heating (latent, sensible and radiative), mountain and transient eddy effects. For this analysis the doubled CO₂ experiment performed by Wilson and Mitchell (1987) is used. The linear simulations of the control and perturbation climate capture most of the important features of the GCMs stationary eddies. The simulation of the anomalous stationary eddy pattern in the Northern Hemisphere captures only some of the important features of the GCMs anomalies. The climate anomalies in the Southern Hemisphere are poorly simulated. In the Northern Hemisphere the climate anomalies are dominated by the effect of transient eddies and mountains. In low latitudes also the contribution of latent heating is important. The contributions of sensible and radiative heating are small.