AGU journal highlights -- August 6, 2008 (heat stored by ground General circ...)

AGU journal highlights -- August 6, 2008

Date:8/6/2008

heat stored by ground

General circulation models (GCMs), the primary tool for estimating the magnitude of future climate change, rely on realistic inputs to generate accurate predictions. New studies have revealed that over the past 60 years, the continents absorbed an amount of heat comparable to that absorbed by the whole atmosphere during the same time interval. However, bottom boundary conditions in soil components of GCMs, particularly those used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, only extend 10 meters (33 feet) below ground, perhaps leading to underestimations of continental heat absorption. To better estimate this, MacDougall et al. calculate the subsurface heat content from two future climate simulations and compare the results with those obtained from running a separate model of soil heat content. They find that if boundary conditions for the soil extend down to 600 meters (1970 feet), then the subsurface can absorb 6 times more heat than if the soil boundary conditions were at 10 meters (33 feet). This suggests that current models underestimate the heat stored by the ground, particularly for the northern high latitudes.

Title:

Quantification of subsurface heat storage in a GCM simulation

Authors:

Andrew H. MacDougall, M. Bruce Stevens, and Hugo Beltrami: Environmental Sciences Research Centre, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada;

J. Fidel Gonzlez-Rouco: Departamento de Astrofsica y Ciencias de al Atmsfera, Universitas Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.

Source:

Geophysical Research Letters (GRL) paper 10.1029/2008GL034639, 2008; http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034639

6. Soot from ships worse than expected

Produced during combustion of fossil fuels and biofuels, light-absorbing carbon (soot) creates haze and absorbs light with an efficiency near
'/>"/>

Contact: Peter Weiss
pweiss@agu.org
202-777-7507
American Geophysical Union
Source:Eurekalert

0

GOOD

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Related biology news :

1. Highlights from the August 2008 Journal of the American Dietetic Association
2. AGU journal highlights -- July 23, 2008
3. Tips from the Journals of the American Society for Microbiology
4. Louisiana Tech researchers feature drug reformulation in prestigious journal
5. Significant impact factor boost for scientific journal Genome Research
6. News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
7. Highlights from the July 2008 Journal of the American Dietetic Association
8. Impact Factor names Cell top research journal
9. Highlights from the June 2008 Journal of the American Dietetic Association
10. MBL awards journalism fellowships
11. Federal polar bear research critically flawed, says study in INFORMS journal

Post Your Comments:

AGU journal highlights -- August 6, 2008(heat stored by ground General circ...)