Greenhouse Warming Linked to Shifts in Rainfall
The models project for every 1 degree Fahrenheit of carbon dioxide-induced warming, heavy rainfall will increase globally by 3.9 percent and light rain will increase globally by 1 percent. However, total global rainfall is not projected to change much because moderate rainfall will decrease globally by 1.4 percent.
This visualization shows an average rainfall month for June,July, and August. The movie will display areas with no rain (brown), moderate rain (tan), and heavy rain (blue). Very Heavy rainfall (dark blue) is defined as months that receive an average of 0.95 of an inch of rain per day (24 mm/day) every day for the months of June, July, and August. Heavy rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of more than about 0.35 of an inch per day (9 mm/day). Light rain is defined as months that receive an average of less than 0.01 of an inch per day. Moderate rainfall is defined as months that receive an average of between about 0.04 to 0.09 of an inch per day.
Model simulations spanning 140 years show that warming from carbon dioxide will change the frequency that regions around the planet receive no rain (brown), light rain(tan), moderate rain (yellow), and very heavy rain (blue). The occurrence of no rain and heavy rain will increase, while moderate rainfall will decrease.
For More Information
See http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/wetter-wet.html
Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
Animator
- Lori Perkins (NASA/GSFC)
Writer
- Kathryn Hansen (SSAI)
Scientists
- Huey-Tzu Wu (SSAI)
- William K. Lau (Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, University of Maryland)
Datasets used in this visualization
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