Cloud cover changes driven by atmospheric circulation in Europe during the last decades

Sfîcă, Lucian; Beck, Christoph; Niţă, Ion-Andrei; Voiculescu, Mirela; Bîrsan, Marius-Victor; Philipp, A.

doi:10.1002/joc.6841

Cited by 28 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…On the other hand, needles from Transect 3 (Norway) tended to have a lower SD proj than what was expected based on MAT alone. Those were sites with high MAP and high cloud cover (Sfîcă et al, 2021), both of which would be consistent with reduced irradiance sums, perhaps also contributing to the low SD proj . Collectively, the observed patterns indicate that MAP may play a secondary role at best in determining SD across the Scots pine range.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO₂: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Marek

Tomaszewski

Żytkowiak

et al. 2021

Plant Cell & Environment

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The commonly observed negative relationship between stomatal density (SD) and atmospheric CO2 has led to SD being proposed as an indicator of atmospheric CO2 concentration. The use of SD as a proxy for CO2, however, has been hampered by an insufficient understanding of the intraspecific variation of this trait. We hypothesized that SD in Pinus sylvestris, a widely distributed conifer, varies geographically and that this variation is determined by major climatic variables. By sampling needles from naturally growing trees along a latitudinal range of 32.25°, equivalent to 13.7°C gradient of mean annual temperature (MAT) across Europe, we found that SD decreased from the warmest southern sites to the coldest sites in the north at a rate of 4 stomata per mm2 for each 1°C, with MAT explaining 44% of the variation. Additionally, samples from a provenance trial exhibited a positive relationship between SD and the MAT of the original localities, suggesting that high SD is an adaptation to warm temperature. Our study revealed one of the strongest intraspecific relationships between SD and climate in any woody species, supporting the utility of SD as a temperature, rather than direct CO2, proxy. In addition, our results predict the response of SD to climate warming.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO₂: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Marek

Tomaszewski

Żytkowiak

et al. 2021

Plant Cell & Environment

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“…(2014)—pointing to decreasing cloud cover in winter, summer and spring, which is affecting the surface energy balance—, and by Sfîcă et al . (2020) who found a decrease in the cloud cover over the inner European continent and particularly in Eastern Europe. The substantial summer warming, especially daytime (TMAX), could be linked to the increase in meridional circulation (Seep and Jaagus, 2002) and higher persistence of anticyclonic circulation types (Barbu et al ., 2016), in combination with the increasing frequency in easterly circulation (Bartoszek, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature changes and elevation‐warming relationships in the Carpathian Mountains

Micu

Dumitrescu

Cheval

et al. 2020

Intl Journal of Climatology

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This paper investigates the elevation‐warming relationships across the Carpathian Mountains, using the 0.1° × 0.1° gridded daily air temperature dataset developed within the CARPATCLIM project, in order to understand the spatial patterns of annual and seasonal temperature trends and test the hypothesis of enhanced warming with elevation. Temperature trend and elevation‐warming analyses were conducted over the 50 years of the dataset (1961–2010). The vertical variations of five key isotherms relevant for the development of cold‐climate weathering, presence of permafrost (−2°C, 0°C, +2°C, +3°C) and spread of forest vegetation (July +10°C) were also examined. The Carpathian Mountains are under visible annual and seasonal warming (stronger in the summer and winter), both daytime and nighttime. The warming process shows a great spatial inhomogeneity, but is more pronounced in the lowlands of the region, generally below 1,000–1,200 m. The correlations between elevation and warming rates across the Carpathians have been found both to be positive and negative, while mostly significant at the 5% level. Evidence of enhanced warming with elevation was found to be related to the minimum temperature increase mostly across the NW and SW Carpathians, at both annual and seasonal scales (winter, summer and spring). Less prominent EDW signals have been identified in the NE, E and S Carpathians (summer), as well as in the NE Carpathians (spring). Parts of the detected temperature trends and EDW signals have been considered to be an effect of the changing atmospheric circulation (i.e. westerly intensification especially in the winter), although other mechanisms and processes could be involved (e.g. snow‐albedo feedbacks in the spring). These results could serve as a reference for further investigations of climate warming effects across the Carpathian Mountains region (e.g. ecological and geomorphic), especially in relation to the augmented summer heat stress (e.g. more frequent heatwaves) and milder winters (e.g. less freezing days).

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“…Day-today changes in minimum and maximum temperatures are usually the highest between the second and fourth day of occurrence of a given circulation, and then they decrease or even change the sign to the opposite one [27]. Sfîcă et al [18] identified two major spatial changes in cloud cover over Europe, in connection with atmospheric circulation, associated with the latitudinal shift towards the north of the westerly circulation. The changes in cloud cover distribution and also in radiation fluxes leading to temperature changes, imposed by these shifts in atmospheric circulation over the continent, are higher in Eastern and Central Europe.…”

Section: Influence Of Atmospheric Circulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Clouds and aerosols continue to contribute the largest uncertainty to estimates and interpretations of the Earth's changing energy budget [17]. The changes of atmospheric circulation in Europe during 1981-2014 were accompanied generally by a reduction of the total cloud cover over the continent, and this leads to an overall increase of the shortwave incoming radiation at continental scale causing a possible increase of air temperature [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large Day-to-Day Variability of Extreme Air Temperatures in Poland and Its Dependency on Atmospheric Circulation

Szyga–Pluta

2021

Atmosphere

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The primary purpose of the study was the determination of the spatial day-to-day variability of extreme air temperatures in Poland and the dependency of large temperature changes on atmospheric circulation in accordance with the Grosswetterlagen (GWL) classification. The goal was achieved based on data from 1966 to 2015, made available by the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management—National Research Institute. Day-to-day changes in maximum and minimum air temperatures were designated with a rate of ≥6 °C (large) and with a rate of ≥12 °C (very large) and their spatial distribution was presented. Finally, the analysis of the dependency of considerable temperature changes on atmospheric circulation in accordance with the Grosswetterlagen (GWL) classification was conducted. The obtained results showed that in Poland in the period 1966–2015 there was a statistically significant increase in the number of large changes in both Tmax and Tmin. The number of large changes in Tmax increases from north to south, and the number of large changes in Tmin from north to east and south of Poland indicate the range of the effect of marine and continental properties on the climate of Poland and the influence of local relief as well as the atmospheric circulation impact. Large changes in Tmax occur more frequently in spring and in Tmin in winter. Large changes in Tmax and Tmin are mainly recorded during cyclonic circulation, however, the anticyclonic circulation types favour especially large decreases in Tmin.

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Cloud cover changes driven by atmospheric circulation in Europe during the last decades

Cited by 28 publications

References 80 publications

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO₂: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO₂: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Temperature changes and elevation‐warming relationships in the Carpathian Mountains

Large Day-to-Day Variability of Extreme Air Temperatures in Poland and Its Dependency on Atmospheric Circulation

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Cloud cover changes driven by atmospheric circulation in Europe during the last decades

Cited by 28 publications

References 80 publications

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO2: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO2: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Temperature changes and elevation‐warming relationships in the Carpathian Mountains

Large Day-to-Day Variability of Extreme Air Temperatures in Poland and Its Dependency on Atmospheric Circulation

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Product

Resources

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Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO₂: Evidence from a pan‐European transect

Stomatal density in Pinus sylvestris as an indicator of temperature rather than CO₂: Evidence from a pan‐European transect