资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Lower Stratospheric water vapor (SWV) is one of important drivers of global climate change. Increases and decreases in lower SWV have been found to strengthen and offset global warming effects, respectively. Using several datasets, we find that sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the past 100 years has caused an increase in SWV. SST warming over the tropical Indian Ocean and the western Pacific has resulted in a drier stratosphere. However, tropical Atlantic Ocean warming has resulted in a significantly wetter stratosphere, and is the main contributor to increasing SWV in the past 100 years. The responses of Rossby and Kelvin waves over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific to Atlantic warming have led to a warmer tropopause temperature, resulting in more water vapor entering the stratosphere. This study suggests more attention should be paid to the contribution from the tropical Atlantic to changes in lower SWV in the future.