Tropical Rainstorm Feedback

Abstract

In the set of radiative feedbacks to global warming due to a doubling of the CO₂ concentration, from all the models the increase in latent heat transfer as a consequence of an increase of [sea] surface temperature is left out. Starting from measurements of increased evaporation and increase of wind speed as a function of sea surface temperature increase, I derive a large global feedback of −20 Wm⁻² K⁻¹. This negative feedback is much larger than the balance of feedbacks, range +0.8 to +2 Wm⁻² K⁻¹, included in the climate models. If the latent heat transfer feedback, i.e. tropical rainstorms, would be included in the models, the local climate sensitivity would decrease from 1.5 to 4 °C for a doubling of CO₂ to less than 0.2 °C. This is lower than the temperature variations due to solar magnetic, ocean current and volcanic aerosol effects