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Global‐mean radiative feedbacks and forcing in atmosphere‐only and coupled atmosphere‐ocean climate change experiments
Author(s) -
Ringer Mark A.,
Andrews Timothy,
Webb Mark J.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl060347
Subject(s) - cloud feedback , atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , radiative forcing , forcing (mathematics) , climate model , cloud forcing , radiative transfer , climatology , atmospheric sciences , climate sensitivity , global warming , coupled model intercomparison project , climate change , sea surface temperature , atmospheric model , meteorology , physics , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics
Abstract Analysis of the available Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 models suggests that sea surface temperature‐forced, atmosphere‐only global warming experiments (“amip4K,” “amipFuture,” and “aqua4K”) are a good guide to the global cloud feedbacks determined from coupled atmosphere‐ocean CO 2 ‐forced simulations, including the intermodel spread. Differences in the total climate feedback parameter between the experiments arise primarily from differences in the clear‐sky feedbacks which can largely be anticipated from the nature of the experimental design. The effective CO 2 radiative forcing is anticorrelated with the total feedback in the coupled simulations. This anticorrelation strengthens as the experimental design becomes simpler, the number of potential degrees of freedom of the system's response reduces, and the relevant physical processes can be identified. In the aquaplanet simulations the anticorrelation is primarily driven by opposing changes in the rapid cloud adjustment to CO 2 and the net cloud response to increased surface warming. Establishing a physical explanation for this behavior is important future work.