Why does stratospheric aerosol forcing strongly cool the warm pool?

Stratospheric aerosol forcing causes only a small global-mean temperature change compared to CO₂ forcing of equal magnitude. It has been shown that the dampened temperature response to aerosol forcing originates from enhanced surface temperature change in the tropical Indian and Western Pacific Ocean, relative to the global mean. Due to the pronounced temperature change in this “warm pool” region, strong negative feedback processes are activated. These stabilizing processes strengthen the global mean radiative feedback and abate Earth’s global mean temperature response. In comparison, CO₂ forcing has a smaller effect on warm pool temperatures and therefore produces relatively weak feedback, i.e. a strong temperature change.

However, it has remained unclear why stratospheric aerosol forcing affects warm pool temperatures more strongly than CO₂ forcing. We address this problem using simulations of aerosol and CO₂ forcing in MPI-ESM. At the top of the atmosphere (TOA), aerosol forcing is stronger in the warm pool than in the global mean, while CO₂ forcing is relatively homogeneous, which could explain the different temperature patterns. However, we find that the forcing pattern at the TOA is not sufficient to explain the aerosols’ strong influence on warm pool temperatures. The effect can only be explained when taking into account the effective forcing pattern at the surface, which is substantially different from the effective forcing at the TOA. In the case of stratospheric aerosol forcing, the stratospheric heating causes an acceleration of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, which induces an enhanced energy transport from the tropics to the extratropics. Although the transport occurs in the stratosphere, it affects the troposphere and causes a strongly negative forcing at the surface of the tropics. In contrast, CO₂ does not substantially affect the Brewer-Dobson circulation, and therefore the surface response is not amplified in the tropics.

Our results stress the importance of circulation adjustments for the climate response. In the case of stratospheric aerosol forcing, the troposphere is impacted by changes to the wave-driven stratospheric circulation. The accelerated Brewer-Dobson circulation affects the forcing pattern at the surface, and in consequence the pattern of surface temperatures and the climate feedback. Furthermore, we argue that the commonly used method of measuring effective forcing at the TOA is not sufficient for understanding the evolution of surface temperature patterns.