North Atlantic Integrated Water Vapor Transport

Researchers of the Instituto Dom Luiz (IDL) published an article in the Journal of Climate on the link between global warming, moisture transport and precipitation variability in Western Europe. The work done by the IDL members Pedro Sousa, Alexandre Ramos, Ricardo Trigo, and Ricardo Tomé (in collaboration with colleagues from Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) and Universität Bern) used a long-term climate simulation to show the relationship between temperature and moisture transport towards Western Europe, demonstrating that global warming will result in a migration to the north of the Atlantic moisture corridors. These projections point to a significant decrease in precipitation in the Iberian Peninsula due to the combined effect of subtropical expansion and increased water holding capacity in a warmer atmosphere.

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