A STEADY TWO-DIMENSIONAL CLIMATE MODEL WITH RESIDUAL CIRCULATION

Based on dynamical energy transport and thermodynamic energy balance in the earth’s atmosphere-ocean system a steady two-dimensional climate model with residual circulation is proposed. In the model, we include some important physical processes with feedbacks such as ice caps-albedo, water vapor-tempera-ture, etc. The simulated steady temperature field is very close to that of the real atmosphere. The numerical experiments show that doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide results in temperature increase of 1~2oC at the low latitude surface and 6~8oC at the high latitude surface. It is shown that a 6% decrease in the solar constant is required for the -10oC ice edge to move from its present latitude ~70o to~50o.