Ocean salinities reveal strong global water cycle intensification during 1950 to 2000
- PMID: 22539717
- DOI: 10.1126/science.1212222
Ocean salinities reveal strong global water cycle intensification during 1950 to 2000
Abstract
Fundamental thermodynamics and climate models suggest that dry regions will become drier and wet regions will become wetter in response to warming. Efforts to detect this long-term response in sparse surface observations of rainfall and evaporation remain ambiguous. We show that ocean salinity patterns express an identifiable fingerprint of an intensifying water cycle. Our 50-year observed global surface salinity changes, combined with changes from global climate models, present robust evidence of an intensified global water cycle at a rate of 8 ± 5% per degree of surface warming. This rate is double the response projected by current-generation climate models and suggests that a substantial (16 to 24%) intensification of the global water cycle will occur in a future 2° to 3° warmer world.
Comment in
-
Global warming. The greenhouse is making the water-poor even poorer.Science. 2012 Apr 27;336(6080):405. doi: 10.1126/science.336.6080.405. Science. 2012. PMID: 22539694 No abstract available.
-
Water cycle varies over land and sea.Science. 2012 Jun 8;336(6086):1230-1. doi: 10.1126/science.336.6086.1230-b. Science. 2012. PMID: 22679080 No abstract available.
Publication types
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources