Manabe, S., and R. T. Wetherald, 1980: On the distribution of climate change resulting from an increase in CO2 content of the atmosphere. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 37 (1), 99-118.
Abstract: A study of the climatic effect of doubling or quadrupling of CO2 in the atmosphere has been continued by the use of a simple general circulation
model with a limited computational domain, highly idealized geography, no
seasonal variation of insolation, and a simplified interaction between cloud
and radiative transfer.
The results from the numerical experiments reveal that the response of the
model climate to an increase of CO2 content in air is far from uniform geographically. For example, one can
identify the high-latitude region of the continent where the runoff rate
increases markedly, a zonal belt of decreasing soil moisture around 42 degrees
latitude, and a zone of enhanced wetness along the east coast of the subtropical
portion of the model continent.
The general warming and the increase of moisture content of air, which results
from a CO2 increase, contributes to the large reduction of the meridional temperature
gradient in the lower model troposphere because of 1) poleward retreat of
highly reflective snow cover and 2) large increase in the poleward transport
of latent heat. The reduction of the meridional temperature gradient appears
to reduce not only the eddy kinetic energy, but also the variance of temperature
in the lower model troposphere. The penetration of moisture into higher
latitudes in the CO2-rich warm climate is responsible for the large increase of the rates of
precipitation and runoff in high latitudes of the model.