Radiation-circulation coupling of atmospheric climate changes

人为的气候变化改变了地球的辐射平衡，导致全球变暖。气候变化的物理科学维度的不确定性是确定社会相关气候影响和制定气候政策决策的关键瓶颈。导致全球变暖的辐射变化也会引起大气环流的变化。这些反过来又推动了温度和降水的区域气候变化。然而，大气环流也通过决定云和大气湿度的分布来塑造辐射的变化。辐射和循环之间的双向相互作用或耦合是本研究计划将解决的科学挑战。世界气候研究计划（World Climate Research Programme）已将其确定为“云、环流和气候敏感性的重大挑战”，这是对这种耦合重要性的一个衡量标准。

Anthropogenic climate changes alter Earth's radiation balance and give rise to global warming. Uncertainty in the physical science dimension of climate change is a critical bottleneck in determining the socially relevant climate impacts and making climate policy decisions. The changes in radiation that cause global warming also provoke atmospheric circulation changes. These, in turn, drive regional climate changes in temperature and precipitation. However, the atmospheric circulation also shapes the radiation changes by determining the distribution of clouds and atmospheric humidity. This two--way interaction or coupling between radiation and circulation is the scientific challenge that this research program will address. One measure of the importance of this coupling is that the World Climate Research Programme has identified it as a "Grand Challenge on Clouds, Circulation and Climate Sensitivity." The proposed research program identifies multiple scales of radiation--circulation coupling that will be addressed: the global scale of the planetary circulations and their role in Arctic warming, the storm scale of the middle latitudes (about one thousand kilometers in horizontal size), and the storm scales found in the tropics (from kilometers to several hundred kilometers in size). The importance of radiation--circulation coupling across these scales will be unraveled using a combination of climate theory, numerical simulation, and observational analysis. This program's science goals are focused on Arctic warming, attribution of precipitation changes to anthropogenic warming, and the response of tropical cyclones to warming, three aspects of climate change with substantial impacts on human well being. This is research will benefit Canada by (i) reducing uncertainty in future climate changes, (ii) training a diverse group of students spanning all academic stages in contemporary computational science methods, and (iii) enhancing the nation's profile in the international climate research community.