Nicholas Tyrrell edited Intro_GW.tex  over 8 years ago

Commit id: 0c8ab6259c2c7b18d84258534aad3c7256a5b74e

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The reason is partly because the oceans are slow to warm up compared to land; the oceans have a much larger heat capacity than land which means lots more energy is required to change their temperature. But that's not the whole story.\\   If we were to warm earth's oceans by $1^{\circ}$C and then stop (in our real world "experiment" we haven't stopped yet), the land would warm by about $1.5^{\circ}$C and then stay warmer than the oceans, even after the ocean has 'caught up' to the land. This is due to the relationship between the surface and the atmosphere above it; the air in the few kilometers above land is much dryer than the air above oceans. This dryer air is more sensitive to change so it's its  temperature increase more than the air above oceans, leading to a land/ocean temperature contrast. The land and ocean surface temperatures have a similar relationship in the warming and cooling of year-to-year variability. \\