A High Performance Computing Study of Atmospheric Precipitable Water and Polar Climate

Hansi Singh, University of Washington

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Results from a fully coupled global climate model simulation employing water tags are used to quantify the transport of precipitable water into the high latitudes. Tagging of precipitable water with its point of origin (by both 10-degree latitude bands and major ocean basins – Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian) serves as a powerful tool to track the seasonal changes and interannual variability in atmospheric water sources into the Arctic and Antarctic. Implications for the high-latitude hydrological cycle and meridional energy transport are considered, and the link between precipitable water transport and teleconnections with the mid-latitudes and tropics is explored.

Abstract Author(s): H.K.A. Singh, C.M. Bitz, D.M.W. Frierson, D.S. Battisti, J. Nusbaumer, D. Noone