Net Heating at the Surface

[mchandler]

Originally Posted by sophie

...it occurred to me that these experiments have a stronger increase in temperature in the winter hemisphere, although the net radiation decreases with respect to CTRL. There is a decrease in ice and, logically, in ground albedo, but this is not reflected in the net radiation pattern, so that I cannot invoke an ice-albedo feedback.

The greater sensitivity you are seeing in winter is logical since the albedo feedback is stronger in winter (more snow and ice to lose in the first place). But the net radiation pattern is going to be strongly impacted by cloud cover in addition to things that are changing at the surface so it would not necessarily be consistent with the surface albedo change.

Originally Posted by sophie

The net heating at the ground (Exp-CTRL) would indicate much less heating than in the control simulation in the winter hemisphere…

I'm not sure I'm seeing this in the results I'm looking at: for example, if I look at "NET HEATING AT THE SURFACE OVER GROUND" in a global warming run compared to the modern control (EXP-CNTRL) I see that the strongest increase in heat at the surface in winter is in regions that would have been marginal snow cover - that is, regions where snow was present in the modern control run, but gone in the global warming scenario. The map below illustrates what I'm talking about.

I'm sorry if I'm not understanding you correctly. Please clarify if I'm missing your point.