Research on Co2 - Induced Climatic Change

大气中二氧化碳（CO2）的增加对气候的影响是当前科学家、政策制定者和公众非常感兴趣的研究课题。通过明智地使用完全耦合的海洋-大气环流模式，可以实现对这种温室气体影响的真实模拟，这种模式可以适当地模拟必须在海洋-大气系统中发生的临界水平和垂直热传递。拟进行的研究目的是模拟和了解大气CO2浓度增加所引起的地球平衡气候的变化，并分析决定这种新的平衡气候建立所需时间的机制。具体任务包括：(1)利用俄勒冈州立大学的大气环流模式（GCM）与混合层海洋模式耦合进行数值模拟，分析土壤水分预算（以了解假设的北半球大陆夏季二氧化碳引起的干燥）；(2)将日循环纳入数值模式；(3)海洋-大气全耦合GCM 20年综合结果的进一步分析；(4)研究耦合GCM中两种被动示踪剂的海洋吸收，以确定观测到的被动示踪剂进入和通过海洋的渗透程度，可以作为二氧化碳引起的海洋变暖的类比。这项工作很重要，因为它将增加我们对气候变化的理解和预测能力，而气候变化是由于大气中二氧化碳含量的增加而必然发生的。

The issue of impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) on climate is a current research topic of substantial interest to scientists, policy makers and the public. Realistic simulations of the effects of such greenhouse gases can be achieved through judicious use of a fully coupled ocean- atmosphere general circulation model which can properly simulate critical horizontal and vertical heat transfers that must occur in the ocean-atmosphere system. The objectives of the proposed research are to simulate and understand the changes in the equilibrium climate of the earth that are brought on by an increase in the atmosphere's CO2 concentration, and to analyze the mechanisms which determine the time required for this new equilibrium climate to be established. Specific tasks include (1) numerical simulations using the Oregon State University's atmospheric general circulation model (GCM) coupled to a mixed layer ocean model to analyze the soil moisture budget (in order to understand the hypothesized CO2-induced dessication of the Northern Hemishphere continents in summer); (2) inclusion of the diurnal cycle in the numerical model; (3) further analyses of the results from a 20-year integration of the fully coupled ocean- atmosphere GCM; (4) investigation of the oceanic uptake of two passive tracers in the coupled GCM to determine the extent to which the observed penetration of passive tracers into and through the oceans can be used as an analog for the CO2-induced warming of the ocean. This work is important because it will increase our understanding of and our capability to predict climatic changes that must occur in response to the increasing levels of atmospheric CO2.